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." |
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... 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 ...
... writer — and more than a writer , an author — who dominated his age . How this happened , and how it makes his writings what they are , is the story this book has to tell . Yet that sort of story can hardly be taken for granted . Few ...
... writer of any thing ; distinct from the translator or com- piler . 4. A writer in general . A dramatic slippage seems to take place in this series . The first sense implies a Godlike power of creation , confirmed by the first il ...
... writer . " At times the word presupposes a special advantage— " An author has the choice of his own thoughts and words , which a trans- lator has not " ( Dryden ) . At times it does not . The uncertainty extends to another difficult ...
... writer , and by the fourteenth century English writers like Chaucer had domesticated the term . Did it mean exactly what it means today ( whatever that might be ) ? Of course not ; no word con- trols the changing contexts in which it 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 |