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After an early misunderstanding, Johnson's bibliographers are now generally agreed that the Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), previously described as of one or two or three states or impressions or issues, is properly identified as of two separate editions.[1] Nevertheless, as confusion still persists and, in fact, is still encouraged by those who find some advantage in the earlier classifications, it seems advisable at the outset to specify the exact nature of the variants. With this much recorded, the writer may then be indulged a few speculations as to how these variants were produced. For the latter purpose conjecture is supported by abundant evidence. Besides the material available in the Life and Letters much is to be learned from the original ledger of the printing,[2] much more from the book itself, in its paper, press figures, headlines, and offsets, still more from the information kindly supplied by those who have examined certain distinctive copies.[3] These various sources provide for the Journey a commentary more extensive and more explicit, I would say, than for any other book printed in the eighteenth century.
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