Samuel JohnsonHarvard University Press, 1998 - 372 pages He was a servant to the public, a writer for hire. He was a hero, an author adding to the glory of his nation. But can a writer be both hack and hero? The career of Samuel Johnson, recounted here by Lawrence Lipking, proves that the two can be one. And it further proves, in its enduring interest for readers, that academic fashions today may be a bit hasty in pronouncing the "death of the author." |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 48
... audience for fiction consists of inexperienced and impressionable readers . " These books are written chiefly to the young , the ignorant , and the idle , to whom they serve as lectures of conduct , and introductions into life ...
... audience . Above all other political issues , this one strikes an author where he lives . For whom was he writing ? The question had not troubled him through most of his career . He wrote , of course , for the public , or for some part ...
... audience for him : the beau monde that picks up The World ; Lord Chesterfield ; Horace Walpole . Such people are too polite , and think themselves the owners and patrons of Eng- lish . Hence the Dictionary deliberately leaves out their ...
Contents
the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Copyright | |
2 other sections not shown