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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... present and future , who hold the fate of the work in their hands , but also the ideal imagined readers who fill the author's mind at the moment of writing . Both kinds of readers play a part in this book . From one point of view , the ...
... present . In the twen- tieth century a very short list would have to include the wealth of new information in A. L. Reade's Johnsonian Gleanings ( 11 vols . , 1909-1952 ) , the broad canvas of Joseph Wood Krutch's Samuel John- son ...
... present , who professes the least regard for the votaries of science , invites the addresses of learned men , or seems to hope for reputation from any pen but his own . " 12 Not one genuine patron still existed . Nor was Lord Chester ...
... presents himself as a resi- dent of the rocks . He has evidently suffered irremediable losses that have left him without a companion or the capacity for joy . The death of his wife in March 1752 still preys on Johnson's mind . Yet he ...
... present selves seems larger and neater than life . The myth- ical status of the letter , before and after it was published , responds to its deliberate fashioning of a myth . Author and Patron swell into allegorical figures , two ...
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 |