Samuel Johnson

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia Samuel Johnson

Rasselas was written in the evenings of one week, and sent to press while being written. Johnson earned by it a hundred pounds, with twenty-five pounds more for a second edition. It was published in March or April; Johnson never read it after it had been published until more than twenty years afterwards. Then, finding it in a chaise with Boswell, he took it up and read it eagerly. This is one of Johnson's letters to his mother, written after he knew that her last illness had come upon her. It is dated about ten days before her death. The "Miss" referred to in it was a faithful friend.