The Life of Johnson
This was, and is, Boswell's masterpiece and undoubtedly one of the greatest biographies, if not books, ever written. The first edition was published on May 16, 1791 in two volumes quarto. A supplementary volume was added in 1794, to be followed almost immediately by a second edition in three volumes octavo,which did not properly incorporate the additional material. The third edition, with all the new materials finally included in their proper places, was completed by Edmond Malone after Boswell's death and published in four volumes octavo in 1799, but it is the fourth edition, published in 1804 under Malone's personal supervision, which is generally accepted as the first accurate and comprehensive version. Malone (1741 - 1812) was a friend of both Johnson and Boswell and a member of The Club. He was the first great Shakespearean editor and also helped Boswell considerably with the preparation of both The Tour of the Hebrides and the Life.

The next edition of note was the famous, or infamous, one produced by Croker in 1831 and excoriated by Macaulay in one of his much re-printed essays. Then came the attractive Napier edition of 1884, which added to the four volumes of the Life a further two volumes containing the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and a wide selection of Johnsoniana. In 1887 came the wonderful edition of George Birkbeck Hill. This too was in six volumes; the Life in the first four, the Tour to the Hebrides and Journey into North Wales in the fifth and, in the sixth, some additional material, notes, dicta philosophi and an absolutely stupendous index. I am the proud possessor of the 1904 American version of this edition, and the copious, informative and entertaining notes are almost another work in themselves.

Powell revised and expanded this edition over thirty years, and his edition has until now been the standard reference. However, Yale are now working on a new edition of Boswell's original manuscript, and have published one volume so far, with a second due this Autumn. I haven't seen it, but if it is as thoroughly researched as the rest of the Boswell Papers it will be a strong competitor to the Hill/Powell edition.

Although these are the main editions, there are dozens of others, new and old, hardback and paperback, scholarly and basic. As well as the Hill, I have a single volume Globe edition based on the fourth, Malone, version; a very beautiful edition based on the third, published in 1904 by Henry Froude in two volumes on 'rice' paper but in this case bound into one small leather-clad volume which formed the Croydon Prize to R.L. Carpenter for Form Work at the Whitgift School; and finally the superb extra-illustrated two volume Folio Society version of the second edition. This is the version I read for preference, but occasionally it is worth going back to the Hill for the huge range of additional information about the people and events of the time he provides through his notes.

Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
This was first published in 1785 and went through three editions within a year. As with the Life there are numerous old and new editions, often coupling Boswell's work with Johnson's own Journey to the Western Islands of 1775. One which is highly thought of, but of which I haven't yet found a copy, is by Robert Carruthers, and was published in about 1850. Moray McLaren,in his book The Highland Jaunt says about it;

"...one of the most informative and certainly most interesting of all the many editions of Boswell's book. Carruthers was a Scot, a Highlander and a scholar.....His comments and notes are informed not only by learning but often by first-hand personal knowledge."