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 74
... Chapter 11 , on a piece from Wilson Quarterly , later revised in Re - Viewing Samuel Johnson , ed . Nalini Jain ( Bombay : Popular Prakasham , 1991 ) . CONTENTS Introduction 1 1. The Birth of the Author : viii Acknowledgments.
... later , Johnson dictated versions to Giuseppe Baretti and James Boswell . This is Baretti's text . February 1755 My Lord : I have been lately informed by the Proprietor of The World that two Papers in which my Dictionary is recommended ...
... later , when curiosity was still alive , Boswell paved the way for his Life of Johnson by publishing the letter for the first time , with notes , in four quarto pages for half a guinea.5 How had a private message become so famous ? Only ...
... 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 patronage in general was open to ...
The Life of an Author Lawrence Lipking. decades later.15 Perhaps " that celebrated letter of which so much has been said " was not at all the same in 1790 as it had been in 1755.16 In that case readers might have to change their minds ...
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 |