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 63
... play a part in this book . From one point of view , the story of Johnson's career is a long struggle to find an audience he eventually helped to create : the English common reader . But he also kept company in his mind with the great ...
... Plays of William Shakespeare 198 9. Journeying Westward : Political Writings ; A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland 234 10. Touching the Shore : The Lives of the English Poets 259 11. The Life to Come : Johnson's Endings 295 ...
... play a part , and scholars who investigate the trail of money that keeps authors alive , for instance , are surely telling liter- ary critics something they need to know . Yet material causes cannot complete the definition . " Author ...
... plays out this conflict . As much as he participates in the publishing schemes and ventures of the moment — the first magazines , the English dictionary , editions of the best - selling national poets , or anything else for which money ...
... play the role he prefers — the good- natured man of letters and man of the world.22 Pinned to the scutcheon of Patron , his lordship , as he reads , will find it very diffi- cult to like himself . Johnson's revenge would not succeed ...
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 |