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.

Connections

Connections Sort ascending Author name Excerpt
Textual Production Jane Porter
She wrote this novel while living in London.
Porter, Jane. The Scottish Chiefs. Derby and Jackson.
19
In her preface to the first edition (now extremely rare)
Feminist Companion Archive.
she wrote that she had made no hesitation to accept truth as the helpmate of...
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...
Textual Production Susannah Dobson
Samuel Johnson supposed, nearly a decade after its production, that The Life of Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné, 1772, was by SD : actually it was the last work of Sarah Scott , who always published anonymously.
Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Redford, Bruce, Princeton University Press.
4: 147
Textual Production P. D. James
The title emerged from a remark of Samuel Johnson about reaching the age of seventy-seven.
James, P. D. Time to Be in Earnest. Faber and Faber.
title-page
Textual Production Elizabeth Carter
The work she translated was Algarotti 's Italian version of Newton 's Optics. The project of translating back from the Italian popularisation of this famous work was recommended to her by Thomas Birch ....
Textual Production Beryl Bainbridge
BB published another historical novel, According to Queeney, about Hester Thrale and Samuel Johnson , whose narrative sticks unusually close to its sources.
Eilenberg, Susan. “Leaf, Button, Dog”. London Review of Books, pp. 13-15.
13
Textual Production Elizabeth Jenkins
EJ 's next novels were Doubtful Joy, 1935, The Phoenix Nest, 1936, Robert and Helen, 1944, and Young Enthusiasts, 1947 (titled from Samuel Johnson 's description of the ambitious young scholar...
Textual Production Elizabeth Montagu
Her full title is An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear, compared with the Greek and French Dramatic Poets, With some Remarks Upon the Misrepresentations of Mons. de Voltaire.
Montagu, Elizabeth. Essay on Shakespear. J. Dodsley.
title-page
She spelled...
Textual Production Elizabeth Heyrick
EH published Familiar Letters Addressed to Children and Young Persons of the Middle Ranks, with a quotation from Johnson 's Rambler on the title-page.
Heyrick, Elizabeth. Familiar Letters Addressed to Children and Young Persons of the Middle Ranks. Darton, Harvey and Darton.
title-page
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...
Textual Production Hester Lynch Piozzi
Johnson was quite groundlessly suspected of helping her with its composition.
Clifford, James L. Hester Lynch Piozzi (Mrs Thrale). Clarendon Press.
62-3
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 Harriet Corp
She quoted Johnson on her title-page (on the value and usefulness of familiar histories), and acknowledged her sex in the preface. The book is now rare in both its first edition and the second (published...
Textual Production Mary Masters
She had been writing and gathering the material here for at least ten years. The volume was printed for the Author, and dedicated to Lord Burlington (who subscribed for eight copies). Its publication was...
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

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

No bibliographical results available.