The Kiwi Collector & Dr Johnson: An Analytical and Historical Study of the Dunedin Public Library's Samuel Johnson Collection

Abstract

The collection of books and manuscripts by and about Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) brought together primarily by Alfred Hamish Reed and held by the Dunedin Public Library, New Zealand, is the largest collection of Johnsoniana held by a public institution in Australasia. This thesis describes the nature, history, and composition of Reed’s Johnson collection, a hitherto unexamined aspect of his book-collecting practices. Its aims are to explore the reasons why the collection was developed by Reed, how it was brought together, and to highlight some of the more interesting aspects of what might be considered the remotest Johnson collection in the world. Chapter topics include a biographical profile of Reed, a brief history of Johnson as a locus for collecting, how the Reed Johnson collection was amassed, highlights of the collection, and an examination of Reed's extra-illustrated copy of Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson". Three appendixes follow the main body: a catalogue of the collection's eighteenth-century books and manuscripts, a descriptive list of material included in Reed's extra-illustrated Boswell, and an institutional census of other extra-illustrated copies of Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson".