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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... writer does not originate his own projects . Still less could the translator of Father Lobo and parliamentary reporter fancy him- self as " the first writer of any thing ; distinct from the translator or compiler . " Others , in ...
... writer can al- ways be destroyed by the readership's disapproval , or even its mere indifference . In this regard his freedom , no less than the props to his vanity , seems an illusion . But more than that , the game that Johnson plays ...
... writer has per- sonal talents and private tasks . Hence even the correspondents of The Rambler seem isolated , or infected by their creator's isolation ; as they review their instructive but singular stories , the act of writ- ing ...
Contents
the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Copyright | |
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