The publication of this volume affords a welcome opportunity to acknowledge a number of personal debts: to the President, Librarian, and English Department at Hofstra University, New York, for hospitality and research facilities during my tenure of the John Cranford Adams Chair; to the library staff and the ‘Johnsonians’ —especially their doyen, Professor James Clifford—of Columbia University for their many courtesies to a frequent visitor; to Professor Donald J.Greene, of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, for extensive bibliographical information; to Dr David Fleeman, of Pembroke College, Oxford, for his scholarly care in reading and making valuable improvements to the introductory essay; and to Mr W.R.Chalmers, of the University of Nottingham, for his patient help in solving problems in classical literature. For errors that still remain I take sole responsibility.
I am grateful to the Harvard College Library for permitting me to publish the text of their rare copy of A Criticism on Mahomet and Irene; and to the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to print Horace Walpole’s ‘General Criticism of Dr. Johnson’s Writings’ from the manuscript in their possession.