James Boswell's Life of Johnson : An Edition of the Original Manuscript in Four Volumes. Volume 3: 1776-1780

The original manuscript of James Boswell's Life of Johnsona composite of his basic draft and innumerable revisionsserved as printer's copy, despite its maze-like appearance. This volume, third of a projected four, offers a genetic transcription, forming an edition designed to make this complex document accessible for the first time. Supplemented by textual and explanatory notes, the transcription enables readers to trace changes Boswell made in the process of composition and printing, restores lost and deleted material, and corrects a range of previously undetected errors and misreadings.

Thomas F. Bonnell, professor of English at St. Mary's College, Indiana, is the author of The Most Disreputable Trade: Publishing the Classics of English Poetry 1765–1810.