The British Letters collection is represented by valuable editions of works by novelists, poets and biographers. Among the most notable is A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson (1755). The Library owns a first edition of Volume I of the dictionary and a third edition of Volume II. The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell (1791) is another significant first edition. Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift (1726), is a second, corrected edition.

A particularly valuable item is the complete first edition of Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, as issued serially in monthly parts by Chapman and Hall (1864-1865), with illustrations by

Marcus Stone. The collection also features Dombey and Son as originally issued (1846-1848), given by George Clough ’40, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the final and unfinished work by Charles Dickens, as originally issued in monthly parts (April-September, 1870), in addition to scrapbooks of newspaper clippings about Dickens’ public appearances and photographs of the author.

The John Masefield collection, given by Corliss Lamont ’20, contains an extensive collection of first editions, many signed, and personal correspondence of the poet laureate of Great Britain from 1930 to 1967. The Virginia Woolf collection, given by William N. Bates, Jr. ’24, features first editions of almost all of Woolf’s works, including some signed copies, and a letter from Woolf.