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.

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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 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,…. 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…. The census note that 'the Rasselas title only appears on later editions' requires correction. 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…. 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….

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