Samuel JohnsonHe 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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... truth . " The mind can only repose on the stability of truth , " he wrote in explaining why Shakespeare had lasted , and many Johnsonians - most notably Wal- ter Jackson Bate - have explained the endurance of Johnson in simi- lar terms ...
... truth " ( 5 : 319 ) . Surely that claim is dated . And a similar skepti- cism must temper Johnson's assertion , in the " Life of Cowley , " that " Truth indeed is always truth , and reason is always reason ; they have an intrinsick and ...
... Truth , and named her Fiction . She now went out again to conquer with more success . " And so the story ends - not with a final victory but with Truth in ascendance , thanks to Fiction's aid . No story could be more explicit ...
Contents
the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Copyright | |
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