At the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum is displayed a copy of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, printed at Birmingham by John Baskerville in 1773, that Johnson borrowed from his friend John Hoole. Its inscription reads, "This volume was lent by Mr. Hoole to Dr. Johnson who spilt a cup of tea on it at page 1. And stained it in the manner still visible." In A Preliminary Handlist of Copies of Books Associated with Dr. Samuel Johnson (1984) John David Fleeman lists this work among the "Doubtful, Erroneous, and Implausible" associations, but the inscription in any case is an indication of the common view that Johnson was careless in his handling of books, more the biblioclast than the bibliophile.

Two twentieth-century scholars, however, have offered a kinder view of Johnson's relationship with books. In his essay for New Light on Dr. Johnson: Essays on the Occasion of his 250th Birthday (1959) Edward Lippincott...