Samuel Johnson

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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.

Connections

Connections Author name Sort descending Excerpt
Intertextuality and Influence Mary Anne Barker
MAB 's discussion of schools leads her into an account of a visit made by the Norwegian missionary, Bishop Schreuder , to a later Zulu chief, Cetshwayo , taken from a blue-book or government report...
Reception Jane Barker
JB was one of a handful of women quoted as an authority in Johnson 's Dictionary, 1755. Kathryn King notes how rapidly, in face of images of the female poet as gentle and genteel...
Friends, Associates Lady Anne Barnard
Lady Anne lived much of her life in fashionable society, and her acquaintance was very wide. In Edinburgh in her early twenties she impressed and delighted Samuel Johnson with an impromptu and complimentary bon mot...
Friends, Associates Henrietta Battier
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.
xii-xv
She also met Sir Joshua Reynolds .
Intertextuality and Influence Henrietta Battier
She hoped to get a volume of her collected poems published while she was in London in 1784, and enlisted the aid of Samuel Johnson. Johnson offered positive encouragement (assuring her he had often been...
Textual Production Samuel Beckett
In late 1937 SB was at work on a play about the relationship between Samuel Johnson and Hester Thrale ,
Cohn, Ruby. Back to Beckett. Princeton University Press.
ix-x
which he intended to begin with her death (many years, therefore, after the relationship...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Samuel Beckett
As it stands it focusses less on Thrale than on Anna Williams and the other women actually resident in Johnson 's household.
Textual Features Isabella Beeton
This first chapter goes well beyond outlining the provision of characters or proper wages for different classes of servants, venturing advice on the art of conversation and social etiquette. IB quotes Samuel Johnson on men's...
Residence Theodora Benson
The family lived in the historic Stowe House at Lichfield, Staffordshire, built in the mid-eighteenth century by Elizabeth Aston , a friend of Samuel Johnson .
“Stowe House”. Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM).
Education Matilda Betham-Edwards
Because of her mother's early death, MBE , she said later, was largely self-educated, her teachers being plenty of the best books.
Black, Helen C. Notable Women Authors of the Day. D. Bryce.
124
Apart from the family library, a half-guinea annual subscription to the Ipswich Mechanics' Institution
Family and Intimate relationships Anna Eliza Bray
Ann Arrow Kempe was described by her daughter as shy and tender, with a love of music. L. E. L. remembered her as a charming, kind woman who admired poetry and demonstrated a sincere affection...
Intertextuality and Influence Anna Eliza Bray
From an early age, AEB admired Samuel Johnson 's style and adopted elements of his writing methods for her own career, such as keeping a journal of progress.
Bray, Anna Eliza. “Introduction”. Autobiography of Anna Eliza Bray, edited by John A. Kempe, Chapman and Hall, pp. 1-36.
26
Occupation Frances Brooke
She was accompanied and supported in presenting her petition by Samuel Johnson . She was trying to secure for the colony schools for both sexes, missionaries for the natives, and money to give some style...
Textual Features Frances Brooke
Mary Singleton, supposed author of this paper, with its trenchant comments on society and politics, is an unmarried woman on the verge of fifty,
McMullen, Lorraine. An Odd Attempt in a Woman: The Literary Life of Frances Brooke. University of British Columbia Press.
14
good-humoured as well as sharply intelligent: a contribution to the...
Friends, Associates Frances Brooke
Before departing for Québec to join her husband , FB attended a farewell party with Samuel Johnson and other literary friends.
McMullen, Lorraine. An Odd Attempt in a Woman: The Literary Life of Frances Brooke. University of British Columbia Press.
69

Timeline

27 June 1777: The clergyman William Dodd was executed for...

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27 June 1777

The clergyman William Dodd was executed for forgery despite the efforts of many distinguished people to win him a pardon.

15 January 1778: A Scottish court found in favour of Joseph...

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15 January 1778

A Scottish court found in favour of Joseph Knight , a slave of African origin who had been brought to Scotland and now sued for his liberty. In effect this abolished slavery in Scotland: a...

By September 1782: The Letters of the black Londoner Ignatius...

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By September 1782

The Letters of the black Londoner Ignatius Sancho were published two years after the author's death.

7 November 1783: The last public hanging took place at Tyburn...

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7 November 1783

The last public hanging took place at Tyburn in London (near where Marble Arch now stands), putting an end to the practice of parading the condemned through town en route to the scene of execution.

1 October 1785: The year after Johnson's death, Boswell published...

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1 October 1785

The year after Johnson 's death, Boswell published The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.

7 December 1789: Hester Lynch Piozzi heard the African John...

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7 December 1789

Hester Lynch Piozzi heard the African John Frederick Bridgetower speaking in public at Bath, to great applause, and wrote how Dr. Johnson would have adored that Man!

April 1791: The month before the appearance of his Life...

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April 1791

The month before the appearance of his Life of Samuel Johnson , and as parliament debated the bill to abolish slavery, James Boswell published a long poem entitled No Abolition of Slavery; or, The Universal...

16 May 1791: James Boswell published The Life of Samuel...

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16 May 1791

James Boswell published The Life of Samuel Johnson, on the twenty-eighth anniversary of the day that he and Johnson first met.

March 1824-May 1829: Walter Savage Landor published Imaginary...

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March 1824-May 1829

Walter Savage Landor published Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen.

February 1906: Publisher J. M. Dent launched Everyman's...

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February 1906

Publisher J. M. Dent launched Everyman's Library, aiming to reprint 1,000 classic titles: the first year's 155 volumes included Æschylus , Shakespeare , Jane Austen practically complete,
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell.
169
and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu .

Texts

Johnson, Samuel. The Prince of Abissinia. Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1759.
Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler. Printed for Nichols, Son, and Bentley.
Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler. Editors Bate, Walter Jackson and Albrecht B. Strauss, Yale University Press, 1969.
Johnson, Samuel. The Vanity of Human Wishes. Printed for R. Dodsley, 1749.