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." |
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... knowledge " and " teachers of truth . " 47 An author who knows his business ought always to remember where he comes from , the long line of earlier authors who have taught him how to write and think . Johnson associates his career with ...
... knowledge in the eighteenth century and dominates early criticism of Johnson's work , though modern Johnsonians seem re- luctant to bring it up . I am referring , of course , to Joseph Addison . Few literary genealogies have ever been ...
... knowledge . Though young Johnson exercised his wit on Addison's Pygmies and Cranes , the older Johnson was not sure that pygmies deserved attention in the first place . " By the sonorous magnificence of Roman syllables the writer ...
... knowledge on to a larger and larger circle of read- ers . Hence the problem shared by authors in Johnson's age was to reach an audience already acquainted with the broad outlines of truth , and already civilized by correct standards of ...
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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 |