Fair copy: Samuel Johnson'sThe Fountains

Scope and Content

A small notebook comprising a copy, in HLP's hand, of Samuel Johnson's The Fountains. A fairy tale. A number of pages, which have been removed, evidently contained a translation of the work into Italian. A later note in HLP's hand states, Why this was translated, or transcribed, or why the Translation was torn, and the Transcript left, I cannot now make a Guess. H:L:P. 1801. There are numerous differences between this text and the version published in Miscellanies in prose and verse (1766); this copy is probably pre-publication as the published version shows a number of improvements. Johnson worked closely with HLP when he wrote this tale and a number of passages were written by her.

See Gwin J. Kolb, Mrs. (Thrale) Piozzi and Dr. Johnson's The Fountains: A Fairy Tale, in Novel, vol. 13 (1979), pp. 68-81.