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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... ideas with others in lectures and seminars as well as in the give and take of conversation has been important at ... idea I needed to make my own . I thank both friends and strangers for their questions . Chapter 1 of this book draws on ...
... ideas that spill from the air . No single mo- ment can encompass all of authorship . Nor does the meaning of " author " remain constant over time . Dur- ing the past few decades , an impressive amount of scholarly atten- tion has been ...
... idea of a patron . Seven years later he had no objection to accepting a pension , however much his enemies might howl . The falsity of Chesterfield could not impugn a genuine Maecenas . At any rate , what Johnson intended to say about ...
... idea leads to a new source of grievance . Hav- ing climaxed one sequence with an allusion to Chesterfield's remote- ness , Johnson uses the same words differently to begin another se- quence , this time referring to Chesterfield's ...
... idea of spoken English as it might be . Writers , as Johnson's 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 ...
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 |