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
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... poem with which the grubstreet Odysseus dropped anchor . Not surprisingly it was called London . 55 The work through which Johnson made a place for himself in the London literary world is a poem that takes leave of the city . Most of ...
... poem , the first work ever to bear his name on its title page . The Van- ity of Human Wishes belongs to its time . Its mood is postwar , ex- hausted by schemes that have vanished like smoke , among them the pathetic ambitions of " the ...
... poem target foibles of the age . Another poet might have made more of the faddish image of fireworks , so easy to exploit for com- edy and political gossip ; Johnson adapts it to an eternal condition . The poem , Garrick said , " is as ...
Contents
the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Copyright | |
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