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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... praise of genius is original invention " and that Paradise Lost " is not the great- est of heroick poems , only because it is not the first . " Yet the Dictio- nary refuses to discriminate the work of authors from the work of writers in ...
... praise.21 Then suddenly , with " but , " the flattery stops . From this point on the reader is forced to adopt the author's position . The faint foreboding of " slight " encouragement turns into the flat indig- nity of " so little ...
... praise was self - satisfied , not to say otiose . " Perfection " could hardly have been a word that Johnson wanted to hear ; no one else could have been so aware of the imperfections that any keen eye would pick out when the Dictionary ...
... praise is planted in our hearts , which I would believe wise Nature ( for she does nothing in vain ) has instilled in us to spur us to praiseworthy deeds . ” Whether or not all hearts feel that desire , young Johnson's certainly did ...
... praise might be thought wasted on a daffodil , but surely some young person hungers for them . Johnson's first writing already aspires to glory . The second phenomenon , bending back against the first and dark- ening it with irony , is ...
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 |