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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... sense of the common reader , the book shows how this life transformed the very nature of authorship . Beginning with the defiant letter to Chesterfield that made Johnson a celebri- ty , Samuel Johnson offers fresh readings of all the ...
... sense and scholarship of James L. Clifford's Young Sam Johnson ( 1955 ) and Dictionary Johnson ( 1979 ) , the lively human interest of John Wain's Samuel Johnson ( 1974 ) , and the psy- chological depth of W. Jackson Bate's Samuel ...
... sense implies a Godlike power of creation , confirmed by the first il- lustration , from Hooker : " That law , the author and observer whereof is one only God , to be blessed for ever . " But the second sense re- treats to a mere ...
... sense that the modern conditions and connotations of authorship — for instance , the way that copy- right laws define an author as an owner — are incontestably mod- ern ) . Clearly , the word has been adaptable . Like authors them ...
... sense of a profession ? How can he help us think about the life of an author ? Each of these questions leads us back to the particulars of Johnson's work , the place where the general prob- lems of authorship must be resolved in ...
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 |