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(JOHNSON, Samuel). HAWKINS, John. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. By...
London: Printed for J. Buckland,...and E. Newbery, 1787. Second edition (so stated). Tall 8vo., 19th century half calf, marble boards, raised bands, leather spine label, (4), 1-605, (15)pp. With a plate from another work bound in at p.192, with a holograph caption written on the foot of p.192. Notation about the plate on the blank, hole in the halftitle, some foxing, inner hinges cracked and outer hinges rubbed (but certainly holding), this is still a very good copy of the first full biography of Samuel Johnson.
While modern scholars note that ‘Hawkins had special insight into Johnson's mental states at various points in his life, his early days in London, his association with the Gentleman's Magazine, and his political views and writings.' Hawkins's use of historical and cultural details, an uncommon literary device at the time, produced one of the earliest "life and times" biographies in our language' this was not necessarily the view held by those in Johnson's circle. Many were unhappy with the Hawkins biography, including James Boswell who saw fit to mention this in the introduction to his biography of Johnson, published in 1791: ‘Since my work was announced, several Lives and Memoirs of Dr. Johnson have been published, the most voluminous of which is one compiled for the booksellers of London, by Sir John Hawkins, Knight, a man, whom, during my long intimacy with Dr. Johnson, I never saw in his company, I think but once, and I am sure not above twice. Johnson might have esteemed him for his decent, religious demeanour, and his knowledge of books and literary history; but from the rigid formalities of his manners, it is evident that they never could have lived together with companionable ease and familiarity; nor had Sir John Hawkins that nice perception which was necessary to mark the finer and less obvious parts of Johnson's character. His being appointed one of his executors, gave him an opportunity of taking possession of such fragments of a diary and other papers as were left; of which, before delivering them up to the residuary legatee, whose property they were, he endeavoured to extract the substance. In this he has not been very successful, as I have found upon a perusal of those papers, which have been since transferred to me. Sir John Hawkins's ponderous labours, I must acknowledge, exhibit a farrago, of which a considerable portion is not devoid of entertainment to the lovers of literary gossiping; but besides its being swelled out with long unnecessary extracts from various works, (even one of several leaves from Osborne's Harleian Catalogue, and those not compiled by Johnson, but by Oldys,) a very small part of it relates to the person who is the subject of the book; and, in that, there is such an inaccuracy in the statement of facts, as in so solemn an author is hardly excusable, and certainly makes his narrative very unsatisfactory.'.