The Robert Borthwick Adam collection of books and manuscripts by and about Dr. Samuel Johnson and his era was the result of the efforts of three generations of bibliophiles, all members of the same family. The three men all bore the same name. The first Robert Borthwick Adam began the formation of the famous collection devoted to Johnson; the second brought it to its greatest development; and the third, who at the age of four had been elected an honorary member of the Johnson Society of Lichfield, England, was ultimately obliged, whatever his personal feelings may have been, to preside over its sale.

Robert Borthwick Adam III died in September 1993 at the age of seventy-five. The family business that had given his father and grandfather the means and the leisure to build a great book collection was sold a few months after his death.

The Johnsonian collection traces...