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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... give and take of conversation has been important at every stage . Johnson scholars have been es- pecially welcoming , but people who might find a kindred spirit in Johnson , if only they knew him better , have always been the audi- ence ...
... give them , and resistance to the authority of authori- ties has helped to define a good many modern authors from Mailer to Solzhenitsyn . But doubts about the legitimacy of vested power have become so acute , in times of national ...
... gives to the question " What is an author ? " is " Samuel Johnson " —not a paragon or an abstraction , but one op- pressed , ambitious writer , forging his own identity in difficult times . 1 The Birth of the Author : The Letter to 10 ...
... give hints of how to please the ladies . Finally , in a postscript , he denies that anyone has paid him for this puff : " neither Mr. Johnson , nor any per- son employed by him , nor any bookseller or booksellers concerned in the ...
... gives offense , all speak of the utmost refine- ment . Good breeding has triumphed . According to Johnson , " his Lordship had returned his thanks for it and added that it was the Letter of a Scholar and a Gentleman . " 29 From one ...
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 |