The making of Johnson's dictionary, 1746-1773
Allen Reddick's acclaimed study of the conception, composition, writing and subsequent revision of the first great English dictionary, using newly discovered manuscript materials. This second edition incorporates new commentary and scholarship.
Print Book, English, 1990
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [England], 1990
Criticism, interpretation, etc
xiii, 249 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, facsimiles ; 24 cm.
9780521361606, 9780521568388, 0521361605, 0521568382
21116713
1. Introduction Johnson's 'Mind on the Stretch': A Dictionary of the English Language
2. 'The plan of my undertaking': the composition and purpose of the Plan of a Dictionary
3. 'I can do it in three years': a false start to the Dictionary
4. 'Ended, though not Completed': the first edition published
5. 'I know not how to get loose': the Fourth Edition
6. 'Unexpected truth': the use of poetical authorities
7. 'Factious in a factious age: theology and politics in the fourth edition
8. 'The world must, at present, take it as it is': Johnson's Dictionary after 1773
Appendix A: description of the Sneyd-Gimbel materials
Appendix B: description of the British Library copy
Appendix C: provenance and history of the Sneyd-Gimbel and British Library copies
From the Madeline Kripke Collection of the History of Lexicography