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
Results 1-5 of 39
... Beginning with the defiant letter to Chesterfield that made Johnson a celebri- ty , Samuel Johnson offers fresh readings of all the writer's major works , viewed through the lens of two ongoing preoccu- pations : the urge to do great ...
... Beginnings 34 3. Becoming an Author : London ; Life of Savage 48 4. Preferment's Gate : The Vanity of Human Wishes 86 5. Man of Letters : A Dictionary of the English Language 103 6. The Living World : The Rambler 145 7. Reclaiming ...
... beginning . First , Johnson " entertaind " some friends with it . 6 He had an interest in letting the public know that he was repudiating the puff , which was most offensive , after all , just because it was pub- lic . Robert Dodsley ...
... beginning of the end of his hopes for patronage , he had been working as a hack writer in London for ten years and had reached the age of thirty- eight without one patron or a single by - line . A line capitalized in Lon- don ( 1738 ) ...
... arrival . But to understand what Johnson was going to be , both he and the reader first had to understand where he had started . 2 First Flowers : Johnson's Beginnings Brave Infant of Saguntum 33 The Letter to Chesterfield.
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 |