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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... expect a word like " author " to be grounded in a single , essential meaning , rather than in what Wittgenstein called a family of mean- ings , is surely unreasonable . In practice , different contexts prompt the word to function ...
... expect , for I never had a Patron before . The Shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love , and found him a Native of the Rocks . Is not a Patron , My Lord , one who looks with unconcern on a Man struggling for Life in the ...
... expect . Yet in some ways the imaginary young author had fared much better than his creator ; at least the public had noticed him , at least he had a name . When " The Young Author " eventually came out , in 1743 , it was published ...
... expect to get anywhere ? Only a person who wanted to think like Johnson . The alliance of ambition and dejection marks Johnson's beginning . What explains this odd combination ? It is tempting to offer a psy- chological cause , to stamp ...
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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 |