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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... wrote them as profoundly satisfying , a confirmation of what art and diligence could accomplish and a mark of how far English verse had progressed . To many young poets they would have sounded a death knell . More than one generation of ...
... wrote in a garret in Exeter - street . " Whatever the accuracy of the story , it bears on the style of the de- bates , for Francis ( who had translated Demosthenes ) replies , " Then , Sir , you have exceeded Demosthenes himself . " 86 ...
... wrote his greatest work of fiction , he seems to have been at loose ends . Money was part of the problem . Without a regular source of income , he composed Rasselas “ in the evenings of one week , " by his own account , in order to pay ...
Contents
the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Copyright | |
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