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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... less popular than read- ing about him . He shines like a star , or rather a constellation — Ursa Major — so vast that watchers can piece him together only with inklings about who he once was . The author trails behind these marks on the ...
... less concerned with his personality , or even his self , than with his identity as an author , the result of some delib- erate choices of life . Johnson was not born an author . Almost un- known until his forties , he gradually made ...
... less original writer , like Virgil , also qualifies as an author , so long as readers will acknowledge that he is deserving . In this respect , the name of author makes public the sense of writing as a performance or competition , which ...
... less be possible , with less , for I have been long wakened from that Dream of hope , in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation , My lord , Your Lordship's Most humble , most obedient Servant , SAMUEL JOHNSON4 The signature ...
... less intricate ; " be it ever so little " completes the thought with little words and a delib- erate trailing away . The next paragraph repeats the pattern more economically , when an ornate period that climaxes in the heavy ca- dence ...
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 |