Samuel Johnson (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Lawrence I. Lipking
- First Published: 1998
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1754-1784
- Setting: England and Scotland
- Principal Characters: Samuel Johnson
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Authors or writers, Literature, Poetry or poets, England or English people, Eighteenth century, Creative process, English language, Drama or dramatists
- Locales: England, Scotland
As befits the preeminent literary figure of his age—and the man who gave his name to it—Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) has been the subject of many biographies, beginning with Hester Lynch Piozzi’s Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson (1786) and including Sir John Hawkins’ Life of Samuel Johnson (1787) and James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). Boswell’s work, twice enlarged in new editions over the next decade, quickly became the genre’s defining standard. Two centuries later, Johnson’s appeal to biographers remains high, despite the fact...
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- Samuel Johnson (Critical Survey of Poetry)
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- Samuel Johnson (Dictionary of World Biography: The 17th and 18th Centuries)
- Samuel Johnson (Magill Book Reviews)
- Samuel Johnson (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
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