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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... fact , that lonely time when the author reflects , or talks to himself , or tries out rhymes or sentences , or reads , or takes up his pen , without any witness or partner in conversation , appears to be a distraction from the main ...
... liter- ary critics something they need to know . Yet material causes cannot complete the definition . " Author " is not , in fact , a recent word . In an- cient times , the Latin auctor already indicated one sort 7 Introduction.
... age of a writer who will never again allow himself to be ignored . Johnson awakes and tells the world to take notice . In fact the stir would make him a celebrity ; few previous writers had ever whetted 13 The Letter to Chesterfield.
... fact he knew such dreams were laughable . An essay he wrote for The Adventurer in 1753 , on " The Age of Authors , " makes fun of any hope of patronage : " it is not to be expected , that at a time when every man writes , any man will ...
... fact , the title of gentleman fit the scholar better than it did the lord . Cardinal Newman's famous precept " It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain , ' was corrected nicely by Oscar ...
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 |