James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: Manuscript Edition: Volume 3, 1776–1780: v. 3: 1776-1780

This volume is the third and penultimate in the Yale Boswell Editions’ transcription of Boswell’s heavily revised manuscript of his biography of Johnson. Designed as a research supplement to the Hill-Powell version of the ‘Life’ and employing the complex but accessible system devised for the series by the late Marshall Waingrow, the edition traces Boswell’s processes of composition from first draft to final publication. It restores much deleted material, passages lost or overlooked at proof and revise stage, and corrects a host of compositorial and other errors and misreadings. Professor Bonnell’s annotation clarifies a wide range of textual and editorial issues, and sheds new light on Boswell’s processes of selection and deletion.