What could be more incongruous that the chief intellectual of the eighteenth-century riding upon a small pony through the boggy mires of North-West Scotland? Fortunately, James Boswell was on hand to record the occasion for posterity.
Limited Editions Club; 1974; xxviii, 327pp; 8to (255x170x45mm); 1.5kg; quarter bound in red leather with marbled paper sides; in plain red slipcase; limited to 2,000 copies; colour illustrations throughout. This is LEC book number 467, part of the Forty-First Series.
We recently paid our own visit The Isles of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides, which, even in the 21st century, reward visitors with a rare sense of isolation at the edge of the world. How, then, must Samuel Johnson and James Boswell have felt when touring the sparsely inhabited western isles of Scotland in the 18th century? Fortunately, we need not speculate on such matters, for both men kept and published journals of their travels. Here I’ll be looking at Boswell’s The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., first published in 1785 and issued in this edition by the Limited Editions club in 1974.
Let’s not beat about the bush: this is an incredibly handsome book designed after the fashion of the eighteenth-century. We receive a red slipcase shaped at the edges to fit the spine of the volume. The slipcase has a ribbon to aid with the removal of the book and a title label affixed to its spine. The book itself is quarter-bound in red cowhide leather with red marbled paper sides. The hubbed spine is blocked in pure gold leaf with the title and names of the various contributors. The binding is sewn with red and yellow head and tail bands, while the end papers are of a tan colour and bear a map showing the route of Johnson and Boswell’s tour. The top edge of the text block is gilded.
Within we find a very heavy ivory wove paper with an eggshell finish that was manufactured at the Curtis paper mill, a regular LEC supplier. The text is set in 11pt Baskerville and is quite readable—thanks largely to the modest page size. This face was designed by John Baskerville, a contemporary of Johnson’s, and is thoroughly English; I suspect Johnson would approve. The overall typographic plan is due to John Dreyfus, but closely follows the earlier design conceived by Oliver Simon for the LEC’s 1938 The Life of Samuel Johnson. The monthly letter describes the internal design as exhibiting a strong eighteenth-century flavor and being characterised by a chaste dignity. I’d have to agree and I imagine this book would look quite at home among the many volumes on Boswell’s own bookshelves. Printing and binding took place in the United States.
The book is illustrated with contemporary engravings by Thomas Rowlandson. Rowlandson was a caricaturist and satirical artist who lampooned Boswell and Johnson’s tour through a series of prints, ten of which are reproduced in colour here (two having been newly coloured for this edition). Each illustration spans a two-page spread and is preceded with a quote from the text by way of caption. What the illustrations lack in aesthetic charm, they make up for with the insight into the public reception and wider social context of Boswell’s work. The interesting details of the illustrations are occasionally lost in the page gutter.
This evening one of our married ladies, a lively pretty little woman, good-humouredly sat down upon Dr Johnson’s knee, and, being encouraged by some of the company, put her hands round his neck, and kissed him. ‘Do it again,’ said he, ‘and let us see who will tire first.’
Boswell’s the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.
The text offers a fairly dry account of the tour. It is often said that Johnson wrote about the Hebrides, while Boswell wrote about Johnson. It’s bit of a shame these roles weren’t reversed: Johnson may be an intellectual giant, but I personally found our brief glimpses of Boswell revealed a much more interesting and likeable character who couldn’t quite escape Johnson’s shadow, even in a book of his own authoring. Particularly gratifying to read are the occasions on which Boswell dares to challenge—and occasionally get the better of—his idol. All that said, Boswell has done us a great service in preserving for posterity a slice of Johnson’s famous wit and furnishing us with an important historical account of eighteenth-century highland life. There’s a nice introduction by Robert Halsband.
It is said, the only way to make a pig go forward, is to pull him back by the tail.
Samuel Johnson in Boswell’s the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.
Also included are marginal notes written by Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi (a personal friend of Johnson’s) in her own copy of the book. These add occasional background context, but didn’t, in my view, significantly enhance the experience of reading the journal. One exception that stands out is a paragraph in which Boswell recounts having read a complementary story about Johnson in a Glasgow newspaper. Thrale’s note informs us that this story was planted by Boswell himself to flatter his friend—an interesting insight that would otherwise be lost.
The book ends with a colophon page that identifies it as one of 2,000 copies produced and is hand-numbered.
As always, this book has an accompanying monthly letter offering more insight into its genesis and the production of this particular edition. The letter is reproduced below. ■
Where to buy
You can search for this edition on eBay US*, eBay UK*, AbeBooks US*, and AbeBooks UK*.
I acquired my copy from a US-based eBay seller for around £60.00, including postage and packaging to England.
Other editions
Those looking for a more affordable edition (particularly if located in the UK, where the LEC edition is hard to come by) might consider the Folio Society’s Journals of the Western Isles, which has the merit of combining both Johnson’s and Boswell’s journals in a single volume. You can search for the Folio Society edition on eBay US*, eBay UK*, AbeBooks US*, and AbeBooks UK*.
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Miscellany
For the curious, here’s a video from our own “tour” of the Hebrides.
The Ubiquitous Book blog 