Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Samuel Johnson
-
Standard Name: Johnson, Samuel
Used Form: Dr Johnson
Arriving in eighteenth-century London as one more young literary hopeful from the provinces, SJ
achieved such a name for himself as an arbiter of poetry, of morality (through his Rambler and other periodical essays and his prose fiction Rasselas), of the language (the Dictionary), and of the literary canon (his edition of Shakespeare
and the Lives of the English Poets) that literary history has often typecast him as hidebound and authoritarian. This idea has been facilitated by his ill-mannered conversational dominance in his late years and by the portrait of him drawn by the hero-worshipping Boswell
. In fact he was remarkable for his era in seeing literature as a career open to the talented without regard to gender. From his early-established friendships with Elizabeth Carter
and Charlotte Lennox
to his mentorship of Hester Thrale
, Frances Burney
, and (albeit less concentratedly) of Mary Wollstonecraft
and Henrietta Battier
, it was seldom that he crossed the path of a woman writer without friendly and relatively egalitarian encouragement.
In London HB
met many leading figures in cultural and intellectual life. She visited and confided in Samuel Johnson
, and developed a warm admiration for him.
Battier, Henrietta. The Protected Fugitives. James Porter, http://Bodleian: 280 i 105.
Georgiana did not restrict herself to this circle. She made some eminent older friends in the world of literature and culture, like Mary Delany
, Elizabeth Montagu
, and Samuel Johnson
. From 1777 she...
Friends, Associates
Frances Burney
FB
made friends in the older generation as well as her own. The whole Burney family loved and were loved by David Garrick
. Sir Joshua Reynolds
, who lived barely fifty yards away from...
Friends, Associates
Catherine Talbot
Six months later CT
was staying with the duchess on an extended visit. She was also a good friend of Elizabeth Montagu
(of whose closeness to Carter she was sometimes jealous); of Montagu's friends George Lyttelton
Friends, Associates
Jean Marishall
While in LondonJM
was in touch with a long list of patrons or prospective patrons, including those eminent in both the social and literary worlds. The socially prominent included (as well as a colonel...
Friends, Associates
Susannah Dobson
Samuel Johnson
, on the other hand, called SDthe Directress of rational conversation,
Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Redford, Bruce, Princeton University Press.
4: 147
which sounds as if he was siding here with his friend Lennox rather than with his friends Burney and...
Instructor
David Garrick
He attended the tiny, unsuccessful school on which Samuel Johnson
lost his wife's money.
Intertextuality and Influence
Ellis Cornelia Knight
In her introduction toDinarbas, ECK
indicates that her idea for the work arose from Sir John Hawkins
's claim that Samuel Johnson
had intended to write a sequel to Rasselas, in which...
Intertextuality and Influence
Catherine Talbot
This essay, an answer to number 11, which had taken the form of a letter from To-day, displays CT
's characteristic whimsical ingenuity. Night, claiming to be the elder sister of Today, defends dark...
Intertextuality and Influence
Sarah Green
This preface is headed by two Latin words (one with a faulty grammatical ending) from Ovid
's description of chaos. SG
slams both male and female novelists, chiefly authors of gothic or horrid novels and...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mrs Martin
Each volume has an introductory chapter, addressing the reader in the manner of, and with some images borrowed from, Henry Fielding
or Laurence Sterne
(the latter, indeed, is mentioned by name). MM
hopes her reader...
Intertextuality and Influence
Frances Burney
In April 1780 the author's cousin Edward Francisco Burney
illustrated Evelina in three stained drawings. The one for volume two shows the heroine in her mood of depression after returning home from her visit...
Intertextuality and Influence
Sarah Murray
The Guide to Scotland opens with instructions: Provide yourself with a strong roomy carriage, and have the springs well corded; have also a stop-pole and strong chain to the chaise. Take with you linch-pins, and...
Intertextuality and Influence
Hester Lynch Piozzi
Hester Lynch Salusbury (later HLP
) kept a diary while still in her teens, and wrote remarkable poems and translations. Many manuscripts of her early poems bear the later annotations of Samuel Johnson
. Some...
Intertextuality and Influence
Elizabeth Cooper
EC
's book was generally respected. It was praised by Mary Scott
, and had a significant impact on Thomas Chatterton
Bronson, Bertrand H. “Chattertoniana”. Modern Language Quarterly, Vol.
11
, pp. 417-24.
417
as well as, perhaps, on Johnson
's format in his Lives of the...