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
Results 1-5 of 49
... hands , but also the ideal imagined readers who fill the author's mind at the moment of writing . Both kinds of readers play a part in this book . From one point of view , the story of Johnson's career is a long struggle to find an ...
... hand of the Earl of Chesterfield , perhaps the most notable aristocratic man of letters and patron of letters in England . Soon everyone would know . A few months passed with no reply . Then one Friday , February 7 , 1755 , Johnson ...
... hand of the artist declares itself to a connois- seur in the smallest details . When Johnson wrote to Chesterfield , then , he had something to prove : that he could master the miniature as well as the magnum opus . Johnson had thought ...
... hand to his servant . Time had stood still , so far as The World was concerned , and the puff had blown Johnson back to the winter of his career , his long ordeal of dependency and anonymity . But more than seven years had passed , and ...
... pounds . In any case , he could hardly have begun the Dictionary , let alone carried it through , without plenty of help . The stark opposi- 46 tion of scholar and patron ignores the many other hands 26 THE BIRTH OF THE AUTHOR.
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 |