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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... Dream of hope , in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation , My lord , Your Lordship's Most humble , most obedient Servant , SAMUEL JOHNSON4 The signature applies the finishing touch to Chesterfield and his pretensions . Yet ...
... 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 Adventurer in 1753 , on " The Age of ...
... dream of hope — and money and honor and fame — inspires this peroration . In 1755 each phrase would return , ironically in- verted , when Johnson parodied his old letter to Chesterfield by writ- ing a new one . The prospective event now ...
... dream , and , now that he is awake , Johnson knows exactly how to edit his life . It makes a very good story : The Birth of the Author . Like any good personal story , however , Johnson's contrast of his past and present selves seems ...
... dream of a career and readies another ; it marks the author's 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 ...
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 |