University of Virginia Library

The Printing of Johnson's Journey (1775)
by
William B. Todd

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.

I. Description of Variants.

Edition 'A'

A | JOURNEY | TO THE | WESTERN ISLANDS | OF | SCOTLAND. | [ornament] | LONDON: | Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell in the Strand. | MDCCLXXV.

Normal collation: 8°: A1 B-C8 D8(--D8+'D8') E-T8 U8(--U4+' * U4') X-2B8 2C1.

i title, ii blank, 1-384 text, 385 eleven errata, 386 blank.

Published: January 18, 1775. 'Handsomely printed in one Volume Octavo, price 5s. sewed.'[4]

Number printed: 2000.

Paper: Heavy, with watermark initials 'IVH' (usually evident only in uncut copies). Size uncut: 22.9 x 14 cm. Average thickness of volume: unpressed copy 3.2 cm., pressed copy 2.4 cm.

Cancels: For an account of the original leaf D8, of which a unique specimen is now in the Hyde collection, and a reconstruction of the text for U4, see Professor A. T. Hazen's note in RES, XVII (1941), 201-203. To this may be added, from the evidence Mr. Wyllie has found in the University of Virginia copy, certain data on the printing of the cancels. These, it appears, were set with the title and errata leaves by half-sheet imposition, all eight of the type-pages being disposed in the forme as:

During the course of printing, the man at press (identified at D8v as number 4) interrupted his work to alter the paging of U4v from '226' to '296'. Then, after all work had been printed, and perfected on the same forme, the two copies of each sheet were cut apart and each copy placed at the end of the pile of folded text sheets, following 2B8, as a four-leaf gathering ordered D8r-v. 2C1v-r(inverted). * U4v-r(inverted). A1r-v. When these leaves were later separated for inclusion in the book, the pages of the Virginia copy carried these traces of their original location: A1r, an inverted offset of * U4r; D8r offset of 2B8v; U4v offset of 2C1r; 2C1r offset of U4v; 2C1v inverted offset of D8v.

From the juxtaposition of these leaves it is evident (1) that all four were printed off before issue, and (2) that as the title and errata leaves are disjoined in this imposition, their occasional appearance together must be regarded as an accident in the binding.

Copies: 1st state, U4v numbered 226: BM(287.f.15 [George III copy]); Bodl. (Gough Scotland 252); ULC (Syn.6.77.12); NN (Berg); ViU; Hyde Collection (1 copy); W. B. Todd. 2d state, U4v numbered 296: NN (Berg); CtY; Hyde Collection (3 copies).

Edition 'B'

Title: of same setting as 1st edition.

Normal collation: 8°: A 2 B-2B8. Asterisk before $1 of all sheets except E, S, and some copies of B.

i title, ii blank, iii six errata, iv blank, 1-384 text. In this edition the errata leaf (originally 2C1) was printed as a quarter sheet with the title and usually remains conjugate to it.

Issued: immediately after 1st edition? Number printed: 2000.

Paper: Light and unwatermarked. Average thickness of volume: 2.2 cm. Those signatures of a setting identical with that in the first edition, and therefore impressed simultaneously or immediately after the original printing, are occasionally on paper of the earlier, watermarked variety.

Type: Continuously impressed with 1st edition: S8 2B8.
Same imposition but impression interrupted: 2A8.
Reimposed and reimpressed: A1r (title); A2r (6 errata, last 5 removed); D8r-v, U4r-v (type retained from cancels); Y8v, Z8.
Reset: B-R8, T-Y8 (less the 5 reimpressed pages).

Copies: 1st state, page 1 signed 'B': BM (579.g.35); Bodl. (G. A. Scotland 8°.895); Dyce (5290); NN (Berg—2 copies); CtY; Hyde Collection (2 copies). 2d state, page 1 signed '* B': Bodl. (G. A. Scotland 8°.24).

II. Chronology of Presswork.

The earlier printing of the Journey can be traced most conveniently through the author's correspondence. On the 20th of June, 1774, we learn, the first sheets were put to press (356[5]); and work then continued without interruption until the 4th of July (357), when Johnson left for his excursion to Wales. Though Boswell was assured that the press would "go on slowly for a time," it is very doubtful that much was done, for after Johnson's return on September 30 his correspondent is informed that the work had been "detained" or "suspended" (363, 360) in his absence. Now that he was again in London, however, he proposed "to drive the book forward," and forward it went until October 20, when Johnson reported that, as 240 pages were then printed, the book might be out in a month (360.1). By the 20th, then, the 15 signatures through Q had been completed and 9 remained to be finished.

If we now assume that, except for an odd sheet or two, all printing was in fact suspended between July 4 and September 30, it will be observed that sustained work on the 15 signatures covered about five weeks, two before the trip, three after. This would mean that the sheets were processed at the rate of three a week, with B through G completed in the first sequence and H through Q in the second. That there was an interruption after G is confirmed in various ways, first by the appearance at I of two pressmen (1 and 7) not previously

engaged; secondly by the occurrence in the outer forme of H of an imperfect headline,[6] the result, apparently of temporary storage against other formes; thirdly by the presence of numerous errors in the text. Before G, the author carefully revised his proofs, but afterwards, while the book was being 'driven forward,' he was less attentive and thus required the listing of errata for most of the signatures between H and T.

So long as Johnson was pressing forward on the nine sheets H—Q he had every reason to believe that, according to the previous rate, the nine remaining sheets (R—2B) could be finished in three weeks and the book published, as he expected, within the month. But shortly after this announcement the printing was so considerably retarded that the final proofs were not corrected until November 25 (363), the first of several cancels not proposed until the 30th (364), the work on the title-errata-cancels half-sheet thus not completed, probably, before December 12, and the first copy made ready for Mrs. Thrale's inspection not until December 17 (365.2). So, as it happened, the book confidently anticipated some time in November was eventually finished by the middle of December and, as the holiday season was then in full sway, deferred for publication until toward the end of January. Much of this delay is certainly due to Johnson; some may be traced to new measures belatedly adopted in the printing house.

Before the final proofs were returned there are several indications that Strahan, the printer, had already decided that the sale of the Journey would exceed his expectation; and as on earlier occasions[7] so on this he thereupon arranged that the issue of sheets for work still in hand, or still in prospect, should be increased from 2000 to 4000 copies, and that all work previously machined and distributed should be reset for another run of 2000 copies. With this arrangement in effect, no matter how long Johnson delayed the printing of the first edition, and no matter how much the Christmas season might then delay its publication, work on the increased issue—or as it should now be called, the second edition—could proceed in whatever order the convenience of the printer might dictate. Then as the proofs for the remaining sheets of the first edition were returned, these could be worked off with the others, and both editions then brought to completion one after the other. How and when all this work might have been accomplished remains to be determined.

Of the sheets printed after Q but before any increase in issue there are only five: R, T, U, X, and Y. Quite probably, therefore, these were machined at the usual rate of three signatures a week, at 2000 copies a forme, and were completed by Saturday, November 5. It may have been on the following Monday, then, that Strahan, a little irked at Johnson's procrastination, decided to go ahead with the new edition. From the type, press figures, and headlines it is evident that this decision was reached at a time when all but the last page of Y had been distributed, while all of Z and 2A were still intact, and before the original

printing of S, 2B, title, errata, and cancels. These several pages and sheets thus occur in an identical setting for both editions. In the second edition the pages D8r-v, U4r-v, and Y8v appear as reimpressions in formes otherwise reset; the title and errata page (less five readings corrected in the second edition) as reimpressions now imposed together as a quarter-sheet; the full signature Z as a delayed impression (skeletons reversed, different figures); 2A as an interrupted impression (identical skeletons, different figures); and sheets S and 2B as a continuous impression (identical skeletons and figures). Of the full sheets it will be noted that S, containing the early charges of Johnson's mounting assault on Macpherson, was so long withheld that it was finally worked off with the last signatures of the book.

Among these later sheets, however, there is one important distinction: Though S was eventually machined without alteration, the work on 2A and 2B was stopped half-way through the impression to admit an asterisk before the initial signatures. Apparently, as Strahan may have realized after the completion of S—and possibly several other sheets—some mark was needed so that the warehouse-man could segregate the heaps for the first edition from those to be reserved for the second. By this means the printer anticipated the corrections Johnson later proposed and was able to keep the amended sheets apart from the others.

Since the asterisk seems to have been deliberately introduced and consistently used thereafter it may serve to identify all sheets printed before its appearance. These include not only all properly belonging to the first edition and the solitary sheet S, continuously impressed for both editions, but also E and most copies of B of the second edition. At least this number, then, were printed off before Johnson returned the last several proofs of the first edition.

It will now be expedient to summarize, in tabular form, the schedule of events from the time Strahan decided to enlarge the issue until the day when Mrs. Thrale received the first copy off the press.

                       

	No. of
Ed.	copies	Sig.	Comment
1	2000	Y	Nov. 7? Last page salvaged for later reimpression.
1	2000	Z	All pages held for reimpression.
1-2	4000	S	Continuously impressed for both eds. No asterisk.
2	2000	E	Work begun on earlier sheets of 2d ed. No asterisk.
2	2000	B	Asterisk employed toward end of run on this sheet.
2	2000	Z	Reimpressed, with asterisk.
1-2	4000	2A	{Nov. 26, proofs returned. After first 2000 copies
1-2	4000	2B	{asterisk used to distinguish 2d ed.
1	1000	A	Dec. 12? Title-errata-cancels, by half sheet imposition.
			Dec. 17. First copy sent to Mrs. Thrale.

To the other signs of progression may be added, finally, the evidence of the headlines. As defined in Table I these recur in groups of four (two for each signature), originally combined in the sequence YEND, and then modified in the course of presswork through various other combinations. Again, unless we

wish to argue for some erratic arrangement—such as a misplaced forme, in this instance—a definite order may be presumed from these gradations, and specific indications of that order discerned at those points where the skeletons are altered or replaced by others. The peculiar characteristics of the headlines and the extent to which each is used may be seen in the following summary.[8]                            

			Original occurrence	Extent
Key	Headline [*]	Defect		1st ed.	2d ed.	Comment
Y	JOURNEY	Bent serif at tail.	2, 44, 76	B-2B	D-X
E	JOURNEY	Break in lower bar.	4, 50, 66	B-F
E1	JOURNEY	Upper left serif of Y also defective.	104, 136	H-2B	B-Y	Variant of E
D	ISLANDS	Lower serif broken.	25, 57, 89	C-T
N	ISLANDS	Descender serif broken.	19, 35, 87	C-2A	B-H
W	WESTERN	2d ascender broken.	313, 347	X-2A	C-F,U	Replaces D
2d ed. A combination of breaks in inner forme
	{JOUR—EY	Upper serif (3v)	118, 134}
W1	{THE	Upper bar (1v)	---, 130}		I-X	Replaces W
	{WESTERN	2d ascender (8r)	127, 143}
U	JOURNEY	2d ascender	188		N	Replaces N
U1	ISLANDS	In page adjoining U defect, a battered L.	172-73		M,T,Y	Variant of U

When compared with the full account to be found in Table I, this exemplifies the expected irregularity in the printing of the second edition. Evidently signature N preceded M; U preceded all signatures after H; and R and X, as well as others using the W1Y skeletons, normally came after those using a different combination.

With these and all other considerations in mind, and now adjusted one against the other, we may next offer in Table II a hypothetical sequence of all printing from the first sheet of the first edition to the last sheet of the second. Admitting Johnson's own statement that the book was laid on press June 20, 1774, and allowing the presumption implicit in a later remark that the work generally proceeded at the rate of 6000 copies a week (3 sheets x 2000, or 1½ x 4000), both editions could easily have been finished by January 16, 1775, two days before the first went on sale. That Strahan had actually committed himself this far, before he had a chance to gauge the demand for the first edition, is admittedly a questionable speculation. Even this, however, is more plausible than the alternative: that having resolved upon a second, and having printed off a few sheets for this, he then lost heart and did nothing further.

That the schedule is, indeed, something more than a possibility appears in two references: one a reported statement by Cadell, the publisher, that 4000 copies were sold in the first week; the other, the record of the printing, in which Strahan definitely indicates that both editions, totalling this number, were charged against the publisher before the end of the month. Some objection may be raised against the first report in view of occasional advertisements, probably for remainders, as late as four months after the time alleged. Perhaps this account represents the usual exaggeration to be expected of a publisher, or a story essentially true when first related but somewhat embellished when it was relayed by another person.[9] Concerning the second report, however, no question arises, since this is in Strahan's own hand.[10]

M.r Thomas Cadell Dr

         

1775		[£] [s] [d]
January
	Johnson's Tour. 24½ Sheets, N.° 2000 &c.mmat; £1:8:0	34- 6-0
	Corrections in D° throughout	3-10-0
	D° another Edit. N.° 2000	34- 6-0

This tends more to confirm than to deny a simultaneous issue. If not on the same day, then certainly within two weeks after the original publication another edition had unobtrusively appeared on the market to meet a demand long anticipated and now fully satisfied.

[Tables overpage]

TABLE I PRESS FIGURES AND FORME SKELETONS

                                                     

	1st Edition	2d Edition
	Fig	Skel	Fig	Skel
Sig	(i)	(o)	(i)	(o)	(i)	(o)	(i)	(o)
B	2	6	Y	E	6	2	E1	N
C	6	5	N	D	3	4	N	W
D	3	5	N	Y	3	5	Y	E1
E	2	6	E	D	3	5	Y	W
F	4	2	E	Y	1		W	Y
G	6	5	N	D	6	3	E1	N
H	6	4	Y	E1	5	3	N	E1
I	7	1	N	D	8	2	W1	Y
K	3	2	Y	E1	3	1	W1	Y
L	7	1	N	D	2	8	W1	Y
M	7		Y	E1	6	2	E1	U1
N	7	6	D	N	2	1	E1	U
O	6	1	Y	E1	1	5	E1	Y
P	3		D	N	1	6	W1	Y
Q	7		Y	E1	1	6	W1	Y
R	6	1	D	N	3		W1	Y
S	3	4	Y	E 1	3	4	Y	E 1
T		6	D	N	1	8	E1	U1
U	6	4	Y	E1	2	1	E1	W
X	2	3	N	W	6	5	W1	Y
Y	3	8	E1	Y	3	4	E1	U1
Z	4	8	W	N	4	2	N	W
2A	6	2	N	W	2	5	N	W
2B	5	8	E 1	Y	5	8	E 1	Y

TABLE II CHRONOLOGY OF PRINTING

                                           

Date	Ed.	Issue	Shts	Sigs	Skel
1774
June 20-July 4	1	2000	6	B-G	YEDN
Oct. 1-20	1	"	9	H-Q	YE1DN
Oct 21-28	1	"	3	R,T-U	YE1DN
Oct 29-Nov 5	1	"	3	X-Z	YE1WN
Nov 7-12	1-2	4000	1	S	"
Nov 14-17	2	2000	2	E,B	"
Nov 18-20	2	"	1	Z	"
Nov 21-26	1-2	4000	1	2A	"
Nov 28-Dec 3	1-2	4000	1	2B	"
Dec 5-10	2	2000	3	C,F,G	"
Dec 12	1	1000	1	A	--
Dec 13-14	2	2000	1	D	YE1WN
Dec 14-17	2	"	2	H,U	NE1E1W
Dec 19-22	2	"	2	I,N	W1YE1U
Dec 23-31	2	"	4	LMKY	W1YE1U1
1775
Jan 2-5	2	"	2	P,T	"
Jan 6-10	2	"	2	Q,O	W1YE1Y
Jan 11-14	2	"	2	R,X	W1YW1Y
Jan 16	2	1000	1	A	--

Notes