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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... eye was especially needed . Joanna Lipking provided unending comfort and aid . The notes to this book record many other debts , but they hardly do justice to the colleagues and students who have given so much to me over the years of ...
... eyes , belong to the struc- tures of thought that mold them or to the languages within which they are imprisoned , and persons are not agents or subjects but subject- positions . Hence the name of an " author " has no meaning ...
... eyes . What did being a writer mean to him ? How did he understand his own career ? In what ways does his writing re- flect or resist the definitions of authorship that he inherited ? Is there anything new in his sense of a profession ...
... eyes on the letter , and those who heard about it seemed most impressed by the writer's courage in speaking up for himself : " his manly behaviour in rejecting these condescen- sions of Lord Chesterfield , and ... resenting the ...
... eye on deadlines and the other on the market , seemed more identified with management than with labor . But perhaps the change in his reputation was still more important . Early in 1749 his name first ap- peared on a title page ; not ...
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 |