# Is "A Dictionary of the English Language" by Samuel Johnson a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson (Printed by W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, London, 1755) is identified by: London, 1755; TWO VOLUMES, FOLIO — this is the whole triage. The census claim is CORRECT: the London 1755 two-volume folio is the true first, and the census is also right that format triage is the key step.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London, 1755
- TWO VOLUMES, FOLIO — this is the whole triage
- The first edition is a pair of large folios (roughly 410 x 255 mm), published 15 April 1755 in an edition of 2,000 copies, representing about nine years of work
- Volume 1 carries the title-page, the Preface, "The History of the English Language" and "An English Grammar," then A-K; Volume 2 runs L-Z. Roughly 40,000 words illustrated by about 114,000 quotations
- The full imprint must read "Printed by W. Strahan, for J. and P. Knapton
- T. and T. Longman
- Publisher imprint reads Printed by W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Samuel Johnson |
| Publisher | Printed by W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, London |
| Year | 1755 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London, 1755 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London, 1755; TWO VOLUMES, FOLIO — this is the whole triage. The first edition is a pair of large folios (roughly 410 x 255 mm), published 15 April 1755 in an edition of 2,000 copies, representing about nine years of work. Volume 1 carries the title-page, the Preface, "The History of the English Language" and "An English Grammar," then A-K; Volume 2 runs L-Z. Roughly 40,000 words illustrated by about 114,000 quotations. The full imprint must read "Printed by W. Strahan, for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley" — a shorter or different conger is a later edition. Todd recorded variant settings within the first edition: sheets 19D and 24O were reset, introducing some ninety variants, most departing from Johnson's copy-texts; copies preserving BOTH 19D and 24O in the first state are uncommon. Treat the Todd sheets as a state refinement, not as an edition test — a 1755 folio is the first edition whether or not it has the first-state sheets. No dust jacket exists for a 1755 folio; identification is by format, imprint and collation. References: Printing and the Mind of Man 201; Grolier English 50; Rothschild 1237; W. B. Todd, "Variants in Johnson's Dictionary, 1755," The Book Collector the printed price (1965).

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is CORRECT: the London 1755 two-volume folio is the true first, and the census is also right that format triage is the key step. No UK/US or original-language precedence question arises — Johnson wrote in English, the work was published in London, and no American folio competes. The critical distinction to state plainly is folio-vs-octavo: the 1756 abridgment (two much smaller OCTAVO volumes, January 1756, its title-page announcing the text as abstracted from the folio edition by the author) is a different book, prepared by Johnson but not the first edition of the Dictionary. The second edition is likewise not a rival first: it was issued in 165 weekly numbers beginning within weeks of the folio and completed in 1756.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition exists for a 1755 folio. Documented reprint tells, in the order a donor is likely to hold them: (1) the 1756 two-volume OCTAVO abridgment — physically small, and the title-page itself announces the abridgment; (2) the second edition in 165 weekly numbers (1755-56) and later 18th-century folios (the fourth edition of 1773 is Johnson's own revision and is separately noteworthy, but it is not the first); (3) 19th-century "Johnson's Dictionary" derivatives, above all H. J. Todd's revised octavo editions and the many Walker/Todd hybrids sold under Johnson's name — these are revisions by other hands, not Johnson's text; (4) modern facsimiles and Folio Society reproductions, identifiable by modern paper, a publisher's slipcase and a 20th/the printed pricet-century copyright notice. If the book is not a large folio with the 1755 Strahan/Knapton conger imprint, it is not the first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A Dictionary of the English Language* by Samuel Johnson a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-dictionary-of-the-english-language
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.