A letter about Miss Williams, taxes due, and a journey; undated, but perhaps written at Oxford in 1754.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]
'SIR,
'I shall not be long here, but in the mean time if Miss Williams wants any money pray speak to Mr. Millar and supply her, they write to me about some taxes which I wish you would pay.
'My journey will come to very little beyond the satisfaction of knowing that there is nothing to be done, and that I leave few advantages here to those that shall come after me.
'I am Sir, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.
To Mr. Strahan.'
Miss Williams came to live with Johnson after his wife's death in 1752 (ante, i. 232). The fact that Strahan is asked to supply her with money after speaking to Mr. Millar seems to show that this letter was written some time before the publication of the Dictionary in April 1755. Millar 'took the principal charge of conducting its publication,' and Johnson 'had received all the copy-money, by different drafts, a considerable time before he had finished his task' (ante, i. 287).
His 'journey' may have been his visit to Oxford in the summer of 1754. He went there, because, 'I cannot,' he said, 'finish my book [the Dictionary] to my mind without visiting the libraries' (ante, i. 270). According to Thomas Warton 'he collected nothing in the libraries for his Dictionary' (ib n. 5). It is perhaps to this failure that the latter part of the letter refers, Johnson's visit, however, was one of five weeks, while the first line of the letter shews that he intended to be away from London but a short time.
VI.
A letter about 'Rasselas,' dated Jan. 20, 1759.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]
'When I was with you last night I told you of a story which I was preparing for the press. The title will be
"The Choice of Life
or
The History of ... Prince of Abissinia."
'It will make about two volumes like little Pompadour, that is about one middling volume. The bargain which I made with Mr. Johnson was seventy five pounds (or guineas) a volume, and twenty five pounds for the second edition. I will sell this either at that price or for sixty[2], the first edition of which he shall himself fix the number, and the property then to revert to me, or for forty pounds, and I have the profit that is retain half the copy. I shall have occasion for thirty pounds on Monday night when I shall deliver the book which I must entreat you upon such delivery to procure me. I would have it offered to Mr. Johnson, but have no doubt of selling it, on some of the terms mentioned.
[Footnote 2: 'Fifty-five pounds' written first and then scored over.]
'I will not print my name, but expect it to be known. I am Dear Sir, Your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON. Jan. 20, 1759. Get me the money if you can.'
This letter is of unusual interest, as it proves beyond all doubt that Rasselas was written some weeks before Candide was published (see ante, i. 342, n. a). Baretti, as I have shewn (i. 341, n. 3), says that 'any other person with the degree of reputation Johnson then possessed would have got L400 for the work, but he never understood the art of making the most of his productions.' We see, however, by this letter that Johnson did ask for a larger sum than the booksellers allowed him. He received but one hundred pounds for the first edition, but he had made a bargain for one hundred and fifty pounds or guineas. Johnson, the bookseller, seems to have been but in a small way of business as a publisher. I do not find in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1758 any advertisement of books published by him, and only one in 1759 (P. 339). Cowper's publisher in 1778 was Joseph Johnson of St. Paul's Churchyard. (Cowper's Works by Southey, i. 285; see also Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, iii. 461-464.)
By 'little Pompadour' Johnson, no doubt, means the second and cheaper edition of The History of the Marchioness de Pompadour. The first edition was published by Hooper in one volume, price five shillings (Gent. Mag. for October 1758, p. 493). and the second in two volumes for three shillings and sixpence (Gent. Mag. for November, 1758, p. 543).
Johnson did not generally 'print his name.' He published anonymously his translation of Lobos Voyage to Abyssinia; London; The Life of Savage; The Rambler, and The Idler, both in separate numbers and when collected in volumes; Rasselas; The False Alarm; Falkland's Islands; The Patriot;, and Taxation no Tyranny; (when these four pamphlets were collected in a volume he published them with the title of Political Tracts, by the Authour of the Rambler). He gave his name in The Vanity of Human Wishes, Irene, the Dictionary, his edition of Shakespeare, the Journey to the Western Islands, and the Lives of the Poets.
VII.
A letter about George Strahan's election to a scholarship at University College, Oxford, and about William Strahan's 'affair with the University'; dated October 24, 1764.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]
'SIR,
'I think I have pretty well disposed of my young friend George, who, if you approve of it, will be entered next Monday a Commoner of University College, and will be chosen next day a Scholar of the House.