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.
Several women writers and public figures played very important roles in Yeats's life. Lady Gregory
(whom he first met in London in 1894 and whose close friend he became in 1896) played a crucial role...
Literary responses
Ann Yearsley
More
and Elizabeth Montagu
admired AY
as a primitive, untrained writer whose excellence came from nature, not from carefully nurtured ability: as a phenomenon verging on a freak. More's Prefatory Letter to Yearsley's Poems, on...
Rosenbaum, S. P. “An Educated Man’s Daughter: Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group”. Virginia Woolf: New Critical Essays, edited by Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, Vision; Barnes and Noble, pp. 32-56.
34
Textual Production
Virginia Woolf
Later reprints often appeared as The Common Reader, First Series. VW
took her title from a formulation of Samuel Johnson
's, meaning that non-specialist, non-academic reader to whose taste, said Johnson, he was always...
Intertextuality and Influence
A. Woodfin
She learns to condemn her parents' treatment of her when she boards in a family who deliberately favour the ugly, deformed one of their young twins, to redress the balance. She feels a great relief...
Friends, Associates
Mary Wollstonecraft
Newington Green was a fortunate place for MW
to have settled: it was a centre of intellectual Dissent. There she met the radical minister Richard Price
, the poet Samuel Rogers
, and the teacher...
Textual Features
Mary Wollstonecraft
Though only about twenty percent of its extracts are written by women (the same proportion as from the Bible),
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
501
this book is feminist in its emphasis on the virtue of independent judgement as...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Wollstonecraft
They included The first book of a series of lessons for children (written for MW
's elder daughter, Fanny Imlay
); a series of personal letters addressed to Imlay
(passionately expressive, ruggedly self-analytical), and to...
Education
Harriette Wilson
While she was still in her teens, although engaged in her second paid sexual relationship, her lover Frederic Lamb
set out to get her reading Milton
, Shakespeare
, Byron
, theRambler, Virgil
Family and Intimate relationships
Anna Williams
AW
's father Zachary or Zachariah
, died. Johnson
's obituary for the newspapers said he was aged eighty-two and had been ill this time for eight months.
Larsen, Lyle. Dr. Johnson’s Household. Archon Books.
30-1
death
Anna Williams
AW
died at 8 Bolt Court near Fleet Street in London of mere inanition,
Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Redford, Bruce, Princeton University Press.
4: 198
in the lodgings of Samuel Johnson
. She had been suffering inappetence,
Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Redford, Bruce, Princeton University Press.
4: 187
eating very little, for some time.
Larsen, Lyle. Dr. Johnson’s Household. Archon Books.
98-9
Textual Production
Anna Williams
Johnson
wrote to Samuel Richardson
to enlist his support for AW
in her plan to compile a dictionary of philosophical, that is scientific, terms.
Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Redford, Bruce, Princeton University Press.
1: 79-80
Textual Production
Anna Williams
The Gentleman's Magazine published proposals, written for AW
by Samuel Johnson
, for a miscellany or collection of poems and essays which would include her own work along with some pieces by other people.
Larsen, Lyle. Dr. Johnson’s Household. Archon Books.
11-12, 16-17, 121
Residence
Anna Williams
After a few more years in unidentified lodgings, presumably with her father, AW
was invited to share the spacious house which Samuel Johnson
had just taken for work on his Dictionary, in Gough Square...
Family and Intimate relationships
Anna Williams
Zachary Williams's health improved radically after his eviction from the Charterhouse
, with better food and more comfort. He returned to his longitude investigations and that was when he made the acquaintance of a helpful...
Timeline
Probably 14 March 1646: Sir Thomas Browne published his Pseudodoxia...
Writing climate item
Probably 14 March 1646
Sir Thomas Browne
published his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, a giant compendium of popular misconceptions and antique thinking,
Hitchings, Henry. “Samuel Johnson and Sir Thomas Browne”. New Rambler, pp. 46-56.
52
which, paradoxically, perpetuated many of the superstitions it contradicted.
1723: Dr Thomas Bray, who had founded the Society...
20 January 1724: Elizabeth Harrison wrote for publication,...
Women writers item
20 January 1724
Elizabeth Harrison
wrote for publication, with her name, A Letter to Mr. John Gay
, On his Tragedy, call'd The Captives. To which is annex'd a copy of verses to the Princess.
1752: A pseudonymous M. Ludovicus argued explicitly...
Building item
1752
A pseudonymous M. Ludovicus argued explicitly that poverty drives women to prostitution, and that shelters should be provided to help them leave the trade.
7 November 1752-9 March 1754: The self-educated John Hawkesworth edited...
Writing climate item
7 November 1752-9 March 1754
The self-educated John Hawkesworth
edited and published an essay-periodical called the Adventurer, on the model of Johnson
's Rambler.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
18 March 1755: There was published at London an anthology...
Building item
18 March 1755
There was published at London an anthology entitled The Matrimonial Preceptor: A Collection of Examples and Precepts Relating to the Married State.
May 1756: The Literary Magazine: or, Universal Review...
Writing climate item
May 1756
The Literary Magazine: or, Universal Review (often known as the Literary Review) began publication in London; Samuel Johnson
was a contributor and, for the first four issues, the editor.
Probably 1758: Stenography, or Short-Hand Improved, by John...
Building item
Probably 1758
Stenography, or Short-Hand Improved, by John Angell the elder
, appeared, with a prefatory dedication which has been ascribed to Samuel Johnson
.
1 December 1759: John Hawkesworth in turn adapted Thomas Southerne's...
By June 1766: James Fordyce anonymously printed his Sermons...
Building item
By June 1766
James Fordyce
anonymously printed his Sermons to Young Women. It went through ninety-five British reprints by 1850, plus half as many again in the USA.
15-21 June 1772: A series of London banking firms collapsed...
National or international item
15-21 June 1772
A series of London banking firms collapsed after the bank associated with Alexander Fordyce
stopped payment; ensuing panic brought the biggest stock-market crash since the South Sea Bubble burst in late 1720.
11 April 1773: Boswell asked Johnson the reason why women...
Building item
11 April 1773
Boswell
asked Johnson
the reason why women servants were paid so much less than men, although the opposite would seem to reflect natural justice; Johnson had no answer.
21 February 1774: The House of Lords decision Donaldson vs....
Writing climate item
21 February 1774
The House of Lords
decision Donaldson vs. Becket put an end to the legality (based in common law) of perpetual copyright. The case was provoked by the pirating activities of Alexander Donaldson
.
By March 1774: Warren Hastings became the first English...
National or international item
By March 1774
Warren Hastings
became the first English Governor-General of India.
8 February 1777: The first volume appeared in Edinburgh of...
Writing climate item
8 February 1777
The first volume appeared in Edinburgh of Hugh Blair
's five volumes of exquisitely sentimental
Buchan, James. “That sh—te Creech”. London Review of Books, pp. 13-14.
13
and extraordinarily popular
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Sermons. London publication followed on 15 April.
Texts
Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language. Knapton, 1755.
Johnson, Samuel. A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1775.
Johnson, Samuel. A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Editor Lascelles, Mary Madge, Yale University Press; Oxford University Press, 1971.
Lobo, Jeronimo. A Voyage to Abyssinia. Translator Johnson, Samuel, A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, 1735.
Johnson, Samuel. Diaries, Prayers, and Annals. Editors McAdam, Edward Lippincott et al., Yale University Press and Oxford University Press, 1960.
Bate, Walter Jackson et al., editors. “Introduction”. The Rambler, Yale Edition, Yale University Press, 1969, p. xxi - xlii.
Bronson, Bertrand H., and Samuel Johnson. “Introduction”. Johnson on Shakespeare, edited by Arthur Sherbo and Arthur Sherbo, Yale Edition, Yale University Press, 1975, p. xiii - xxxviii.
Gold, Joel J., and Jeronimo Lobo. “Introduction”. A Voyage to Abyssinia, translated by. Samuel Johnson, The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, Yale University Press, 1985, p. xxiii - lviii.
Johnson, Samuel. “Introduction”. The Lives of the Poets, edited by Roger Lonsdale, Clarendon Press, 2006, pp. 1: 1 - 185.
Johnson, Samuel. Lives of the English Poets. Editor Hill, George Birkbeck, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1905.
Johnson, Samuel, and Arthur Waugh. Lives of the English Poets. Oxford University Press, 1973.
Johnson, Samuel. London. R. Dodsley, 1738.
Johnson, Samuel. Poems. Editors McAdam, Edward Lippincott and George Milne, Yale University Press, 1964.
Johnson, Samuel. Political Writings. Editor Greene, Donald, Yale University Press, 1977.
Johnson, Samuel. Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets. C. Bathurst et al., 1781.
Johnson, Samuel. Samuel Johnson: A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Editor Greene, Donald, Oxford University Press, 1984.
Johnson, Samuel. Sermons. Editors Hagstrum, Jean and James Gray, Yale University Press, 1978.
Johnson, Samuel. Sir Joshua’s Nephew. Editor Radcliffe, Susan M., John Murray, 1930.
Johnson, Samuel. The Idler; and, The Adventurer. Editors Bate, Walter Jackson et al., Yale University Press, 1969.
Johnson, Samuel, and Hester Lynch Piozzi. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Chapman, Robert William, Clarendon Press, 1984.
Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Redford, Bruce, Princeton University Press, 1994.
Johnson, Samuel. The Life of Mr Richard Savage. Printed for J. Roberts, 1744.
Johnson, Samuel. The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. C. Bathurst, J. Buckland, W. Strahan, et. al., 1781, http://SpCol PR 553 J67 1781.
Johnson, Samuel. The Lives of the Poets. Editor Lonsdale, Roger, Clarendon Press, 2006.
Shakespeare, William. The Plays of William Shakespeare. Editor Johnson, Samuel, Vol.