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." |
From inside the book
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... John Hawkins ' imperious Life of Samuel Johnson ( 1787 ) showed that the life was rich enough to sustain two ... John- son ( 1944 ) , the good sense and scholarship of James L. Clifford's Young Sam Johnson ( 1955 ) and Dictionary Johnson ...
... John- son's own 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 ...
... John- son was , and was nurtured as he was by a rapid growth in the book trade , it is certainly true that contracts between writers , patrons , and the public were renegotiated in his time and with his help . No writer did more to set ...
... John- son , during the term of his dictatorship . " Yet however desperate the situation , the writer goes on to advise his dictator to spare " the gen- teeler part of our language , which owes both its rise and progress to my fair ...
... 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 wrote for The ...
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 |