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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... look at authorial self- definition can also help to illuminate definitions of culture . Historically , Johnson seems to occupy a crucial position . Whether or not it is true that the modern author was born exactly when John- son was ...
... looks with unconcern on a Man struggling for Life in the water and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help . The notice which you have been pleased to take of my Labours , had it been early , had been kind ; but it has been ...
... looks with unconcern on a Man struggling for Life in the water and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help " —a definition so peremptory that it need not end with a question mark . And the same scorn was thrust before the ...
... looks with unconcern . . . " Such vocatives are purely rhetorical . The ceremonious style on which they draw resembles that of the formal oration , a mode of speech whose art depends on careful composi- tion . Johnson had written many ...
... looks not on any man , however dignified by lace or titles , as deriving from Nature any claims to his respect , or inheriting any qualities superior to his own . " 59 The point would not be lost on most of his readers . Perhaps the ...
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 |