University of Virginia Library

Rasselas: Purchase Price, Proprietors, and Printings
by
Gwin J. Kolb

The ledgers of the great eighteenth-century printer-bookseller William Strahan (and of his son Andrew), now happily accessible for scholarly examination,[1] enable a new editor of Rasselas to confirm, extend, and, in one instance, to correct statements about the purchase price, proprietors, and printings of the tale which appear either in the introduction to R. W. Chapman's edition (1927) of the work or in notes to his edition (1952) of Johnson's letters.

To begin with, the ledgers seem to confirm Chapman's tentative conclusion regarding the amount Johnson received for the first edition of the tale. Sir John Hawkins, as Chapman said, asserted merely that "the sum . . . is variously reported;'" "Boswell," on the other hand, "states positively that 'Mr. Strahan, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodsley purchased it for a hundred pounds, but afterwards paid him twenty-five pounds more, when it came to a second edition.'" Since "the second half of this statement can be proved

to be true, . . . it is unlikely," Chapman concluded, "that the first half is inaccurate."[2] Now Strahan's Ledger J (compiled, apparently, in 1778) contains an alphabetical listing of works in which Strahan owned shares, the amounts of the shares, usually the dates when the shares were acquired, the names of the persons from whom the shares were bought, and the sums paid for each of them. The following entry appears on f. 19v: "1/3 Rasselas 2 v. Dr Johnson 33 6 8." Although the entry is undated, another entry (from Ledger B) cited in the next paragraph of this article shows that, beginning with the first edition, Strahan, Dodsley, and Johnston were equal "partners" in Rasselas. Three times the amount Strahan paid Johnson for his share of the work equals, of course, exactly £100. Thus Chapman's conclusion, based in part[3] on Boswell's information, would appear to be accurate.

Secondly, the ledgers make clear the identity of the proprietors of the work. Chapman thought that Strahan "was perhaps the real publisher, [Robert] Dodsley and [William] Johnston being his agents, though only their names appear on the title-page" of the first edition.[4] Actually, however, the three men were equal partners in the work. Their names head a group of entries in Ledger B (f. 33r) dated April and June of 1759 which are concerned with Rasselas; elsewhere, as in the entry above from Ledger J, Strahan recorded his share in the book as one-third; and in 1765, below the caption "Partners in Rasselas" and among other entries about the tale, Strahan wrote: "Mr Johnston 1/3," "Mr Dodsley [James, not older brother Robert, who had died in 1764] 1/3," and "Myself 1/3" (Ledger B, f. 57r). The names of E. Johnston, it may be noted in passing, replaced W. Johnston on the title-page of the fifth edition (1775); and T. Longman replaced E. Johnston on the title-page of the sixth (1783). The title-pages of the seventh (1786), eighth (1790), and ninth (1793) editions contain the names of these persons: J. F. and C. Rivington, J. Dodsley, T. Longman, and G. and T. Wilkie.[5]

Thirdly, as R. A. Austen-Leigh's article in the Library in 1923 showed,[6] the ledgers establish the accuracy of Chapman's guess (in 1927) that Strahan

"may probably have printed"[7] Rasselas, and they also provide detailed information about the printing of the first eight editions. In an entry dated April, 1759 (Ledger B, f. 33r), Strahan recorded the number of sheets (21½) which make up the first edition, the number of copies printed (1500), the cost per sheet (£1:4:0), and the cost (£25:16:0) of the initial printing; he noted, too, "Extra Cor. in D°" which came to £2:4:6. The next entry (Ledger B, f. 33r), dated June, 1759, recorded the printing of the "2d Edit.," which consisted of 1000 copies and which cost "19s" per sheet (or a total of £20:8:6 for the 21½ sheets). Strahan added the cost of the first two editions and noted that the resulting sum — £48:19:0 — was "Paid in a Note July 31. 1760."[8] The third edition of the tale was printed in December of 1759;[9] the number of sheets, cost per sheet, and number of copies printed were the same as for the second edition. The printing bill was paid, according to the ledgers (B, f. 39r), on May 9, 1761.

Six years to the month after the printing of the third edition, Strahan recorded, under date of December, 1765 (Ledger B, f. 57r), the printing of the fourth, which corresponded exactly to the second and third in number of sheets, cost per sheet, and number of copies printed. The paper for the fourth edition came to 43 reams, at 12 shillings a ream; the cost of the advertisements was £3:15:6. The total bill was an even £50; Johnston's and Dodsley's shares — £16:13:14 each — were marked as paid on "Decr 17. 1765. By Notes in Four Months."

Ten years later, under date of March, 1775,[10] Strahan noted (Ledger D, f. 20r), below the heading "Partners in Rasselas," the printing of the fifth edition, in one volume and "13 Sheets." One thousand copies were printed at £1:2:0 per sheet. The bill, £14:6:0, was paid on April 18, 1775. According to the ledgers (E, f. 21r; F, 21r), the sixth edition, identical in sheets, number, and cost to the fifth, was printed in March, 1783;[11] the bill was paid, by "Mr Longman" (Ledger H, f. 42v),[12] on June 12 of the same year.

The seventh edition of the tale was printed in September, 1786 (Ledger F, f. 78r). It cost one shilling more per sheet (£:3:0) than its two immediate predecessors but was identical to them in number of sheets and copies. The bill — £14:19:0 — was paid by "Mr Longman" (Ledger H, f. 52v) on January 11, 1787. The eighth edition, printed in December, 1789 (Ledger F, f. 104r), consisted of the same number of sheets as the seventh. The cost per sheet was £1:10:0, however, and 1500 copies were printed. The bill was paid "in Notes Jan. 28. 1790." An entry in Ledger H, on a page (f. 61v) enumerating "Cash Received for Printing" in 1790, reveals that "Mr Longman" again paid the printing bill of £19:10:0. A later entry in the same ledger (f. 67r) notes the receipt, on July 24, 1793, of another £19:10:0 "From Mr Longman for Rasselas"; presumably this amount was payment for the printing of the ninth edition, which appeared in 1793.

Notes