Samuel Johnson: The Life of an AuthorHarvard University Press, 2009 M07 1 - 384 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." |
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... Dictionary ( 1755 ) : 1. The first beginner or mover of any thing ; he to whom any thing owes its original . 2. The efficient ; he that effects or produces any thing . 3. The first writer of any thing ; distinct from the translator or ...
... dictionary seems a drudging sort of work to make an author's name , and the best of his poems were , as he called them , " imitations . " No previous author , or at any rate no celebrated author , can be so firmly associated with ...
... dictionary . Although the essayist has not yet seen this " great and desirable " work , he expresses the oblig- ation of the republic of letters to the author , one Mr. Johnson . " Per- fection is not to be expected from man ; but if we ...
... Dictionary is recommended to the Public were written by your Lordship . To be so distinguished is an honour which , being very little accustomed to favours from the Great , I know not well how to receive , or in what terms to ...
... Dictionary . When John- son first fell into his " Dream of hope , " he had already been making his living as a hack writer for ten years without any " favours from the Great . " In fact he knew such dreams were laughable . An essay he ...
Contents
11 | |
34 | |
48 | |
Preferments Gate The Vanity of Human Wishes | 86 |
Man of Letters A Dictionary of the English Language | 103 |
The Living World The Rambler | 145 |
Reclaiming Imagination Rasselas | 173 |
The Theater of Mind The Plays of William Shakespeare | 198 |
Journeying Westward Political Writings A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
Touching the Shore The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
The Life to Come Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Abbreviation | 307 |
Notes | 309 |
Index | 363 |