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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... wrote , in turn he became the model reader whom others imagined . I too have had model readers . My principal debt is to the col- league and friend to whom this book is dedicated , the late Jean Hagstrum , whose goodness and good ...
... wrote the first epic , or only manufacturing one further instance , as Blackmore wrote a thing called King Arthur . Such distinctions matter greatly to Johnson the critic , who holds that " the highest praise of genius is original ...
... wrote the paper . Any devotee of The World would be fa- miliar with that air of superiority , able to condescend with equal grace to scholars and ladies , and sure that all the world will bow to such elegantly expressed opinions ...
... wrote for The Adventurer in 1753 , on " The Age of Authors , " makes fun of any hope of patronage : " it is not to be expected , that at a time when every man writes , any man will patronize ; and , accordingly , there is not one that I ...
... wrote to Chesterfield , then , he had something to prove : that he could master the miniature as well as the magnum opus . Johnson had thought a good deal about writing letters . Although he regretted that not many English " models of ...
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 |