Boswell : The Ominous Years 1774-1776

New York: McGraw Hill Book Company, Inc., 1963. First printing with "First Edition" so stated on the copyright page. Very Good+ condition in a bright and shiny Very Good+ dust jacket (2 small marks on its inner flaps). NO chips. NO tears. NO fading. NOT price clipped ($8.50). Protected by a removable Brodart clear-plastic sleeve. NOT a library discard. A bright, shiny, clean, square, tight copy. Sharp corners. NO owner's name or bookplate. NOT a remainder. Pages are crisp and unmarked. NO foxing. NO underlining. NO highlighting. NO margin notes. Hardcover. Illustrated with 7 plates and a double-page map of Edinburgh and Environs, 1774. The ninth volume in the series of The Yale Editions of The Private Papers of James Boswell. Three appendices: A) Draft of a letter to Lord Auchinleck, written by Boswell; B) The Scottish Courts and Legal System, 1774-1776; C) Genealogical Tables. Index. Bound in the original blue boards with a black cloth spine stamped in shiny gold. From the Dust Jacket: " This journal opens with nights of gnawing anxiety, the threat of a duel, and feverish testing of honour. His days in Edinburgh and his successful legal practice alternate with periods of indolence that are darkened by hypochondria… His love of gaming and drink becomes a rage… More than half of the book is occupied with long stretches of his London journals. Most of the time is spent with Johnson, and the records of his conversations, from which the LIFE OF JOHNSON was taken, are delightful… And at the last, there is the scene of flattery and intrigue that completes the story of Boswell the lover… his interview with Margaret Caroline Rudd, adventuress, courtesan, criminal. No specimen of Boswell's art shows greater finesse and adroitness… Here is the account of one who hungered to know himself, the whole story of a man with feeling -- his passions and pleasures, his hard work and meditation, and his sympathy and despair.". First Edition (so stated). Hardcover. Very Good+ condition/Very Good+ dust jacket. 8vo. xxiv, 427pp.