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Advertisement for the Spectator

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By Johnson, Samuel

Samuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE SPECTATOR (1776)

[Editorial Introduction]

A unique copy of the proposals for a new edition of the Spectator (1776) survives in a volume labeled “Johnsoniana” in the British Library.1 The volume belonged to Isaac Reed, who is probably responsible for identifying it as Johnson’s and reprinting it in the European Magazine for July 1789 (p. 5).2 A modified version of the advertisement appeared in the Public Advertiser for 7, 10, 12, and 14 December 1776.3 We reprint the title page of the proposals and the “conditions,” as well as the advertisement as originally published. We note differences between the original advertisement and the version in the Public Advertiser.

[Advertisement]

London, Nov. 30, 1776

The Spectator

To be comprised in Twenty-Four Weekly Numbers

At Sixpence Each.

On Saturday, December 14, will be published,

Number 1,

(Containing Five Sheets of Letter-Press)

A New and Elegant Edition Of

Page 546

The Spectator;

Consisting of

Essays on a Variety of Subjects,

Entertaining, Moral, and Religious.

Written by the late Mr. Addison

And others

Printed (by Assignment from Jacob and Richard Tonson)

for the Proprietors,

And sold by R. Baldwin, No. 47, Pater-noster Row,

And may be had of all the Booksellers in

Town and Country.1

To The Public The book thus offered to the public is too well known to be praised: it comprizes precepts of criticism, sallies of invention, descriptions of life, and lectures of virtue: it employs wit in the cause of truth, and makes elegance subservient to piety:2 it has now for more than half a century supplied the English nation, in a great measure, with principles of speculation, and rules of practice; and given Addison a claim to be numbered among the benefactors of mankind.

Though the public have been long supplied with this work at an exceeding cheap rate, yet as the purchase of the whole together may be inconvenient to many who might otherwise be glad to be possessed of it: to render this book more generally useful,a the present proprietors propose printing an handsome edition of a convenient size for the pocket, to be publishedb on the following conditions.

Page 547

I. The whole, consisting of One Hundred and Nine Sheets of Letter-Press, making Eight Volumes in Twelves, will be divided into Twenty-Four weekly Numbers, three Numbers to each volume. II. To be printed on a fine paper, with a new Letter cast by Mess. Caslon3 of the same size used for these proposals. III. An elegant frontispiece (engraved by Grignion)4 serving to illustrate some interesting Passages, together with an engraved title, will be given with each volume. IV. The first number, containing five sheets of letter-press, shall be published on Saturday, Dec. 14. and continued weekly without intermission, till the work is finished.

* * Of the proprietors may now be had, a complete and elegant edition of the Spectator, printed on a large letter in eight volumes, octavo, Price two pounds, neatly bound.5

Also,

Another edition in eight volumes, twelves, price [ ]s. sewed.6

Page 548

Editorial Notes

1 James F. Woodruff discovered and reprinted the advertisement, which was not catalogued separately (Notes and Queries, 216 [1971], 61–62). We are indebted to Woodruff’s article.

2 Woodruff, Notes and Queries, 61–62, and Bibliography, II.1283.

3 Woodruff, Notes and Queries, 61, n. 2, and Life, II.503. On 10 April 1776, SJ said of the Spectator, “It is wonderful that there is such a proportion of bad papers, in the half of the work which was not written by Addison; for there was all the world to write that half, yet not a half of that half is good” (Life, II.33). SJ then mentions some particular papers. He was perhaps rereading the Spectator at that time and writing the present advertisement.

1 At the bottom of the page of the unique copy of the proposals, written by hand, presumably by Isaac Reed (Bibliography, II.1283), is “This Advertizement was drawn up by Dr Johnson.” An edition of the Spectator came out in 1778 under the imprint of Richard Eyres but “sold by all other booksellers in Great Britain.”

2 Cf. SJ’s Life of Addison, “It is justly observed by Tickell, that he employed wit on the side of virtue and religion” (Yale, XXII.648).

a who might otherwise be glad to be possessed of it: to render this book more generally useful om. PA

b published in 14 weekly numbers . . . PA

3 William Caslon, the younger (1720–78); his father and partner of twenty years died in 1766.

4 This could be either Charles (1721–1810) or Reynolds Grignion (d. 1787), both prominent practitioners of the art of engraving.

5 The octavo edition was first published 1712–15. The most recent republication in London was 1775; it was, like the proposed edition, backed by a large group of London publishers.

6 The duodecimo was also first published 1712–15. There were many reprints. The last by Tonson was in 1767, but there was an Edinburgh reprint in 1776. The price in shillings is left blank in this document.

Transcription

Document Details

Document TitleAdvertisement for the Spectator

AuthorJohnson, Samuel

Creation Date1776

Publ. DateN/A

Alt. TitleN/A

Contrib. AuthorN/A

ClassificationSubject: Spectator; Subject: Addison; Subject: Steele; Subject: Publishing; Genre: Advertisement

PrinterN/A

PublisherN/A

Publ. PlaceN/A

VolumeSamuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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