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 51
... 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 ...
... hero — Joshua Johnson ) . More recently , Alvin Kernan has called the whole affair " a great event in the history of letters and of print , the scene in which not just Samuel Johnson but the author , after centuries of sub- servience to ...
... hero , or even the commodification of personality . These sweeping issues are not irrelevant to the particular effects of the letter ; they furnish a context on which Johnson seized to make a parable out of a grudge . Not even the ...
... heroes , command the language . The Dictio- nary gives priority to writing over speech , to the past over the present , and to the usage of great authors over that of ordinary writers . " From the authours which rose in the time of ...
... Johnson accepted that dual role . The conflict between two visions of authorship , the hero versus the servant or the exalted genius ver- sus the anonymous hack , oppressed many eighteenth - century 31 The Letter to Chesterfield.
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 |