2 Samuel Johnson first editions are documented on this shelf, from A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) to The Prince of Abissinia (Rasselas) (1759) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Samuel Johnson title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Samuel Johnson copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

A Dictionary of the English Language — 1755 · 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, LondonLondon, 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…. The London 1755 two-volume folio is the true first, and 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…. 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 Prince of Abissinia (Rasselas) — 1759 · Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, and W. Johnston, LondonTwo volumes, small octavo (c. 151 × 100 mm), published anonymously in April 1759 with the imprint 'London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, and W. Johnston, 1759'; printed by William Strahan in an edition of about 1,500 copies. Collation: pp. viii, 159, [1]; viii, 165, [1]. Johnson's name does not appear on the title-page and no edition statement is present — the second edition, also 1759, states 'The Second…. It is not true that 'the Rasselas title only appears on later editions.' The name is already present in the first edition: the drop-head title on p. 1 of both volumes reads 'The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia'. What is true — and is the real point — is that Rasselas never appears on a title-page published in Johnson's lifetime; the London 1759 title-page reads 'The Prince of Abissinia. A Tale.' Dealers…. No book-club editions for a 1759 title; the traps are the 1759 second edition (title-page states 'The Second Edition'), the many later London and Dublin reprints, and post-lifetime editions that place 'The History of Rasselas' on the title-page — the form under which virtually every modern reprint appears. Miniature and gift-book Rasselases are 'first thus' at most. Practical rule: if the title-page says….

More Nonfiction & Memoir shelves: Stephen E. Ambrose, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, Studs Terkel, Thomas Carlyle, Tracy Kidder.

← All authors · All genres · part of the First-Edition Identification resource.