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The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol 10: Political Writings
Given Johnson’s intense concern throughout his life with problems of human morality, it is not surprising, in an age when such writers as Defoe, Swift, Pope, Goldsmith, and Burke were highly politically conscious, to find Johnson turning his pen as frequently to matters of public as of private morality.
A full list of writings by Johnson with significant political content would include such pieces as his poem London, a number of his sermons, and essays in The Idler and elsewhere. This volume presents a collection of writings with a political emphasis which do not readily fall into one or another of these categories: his early anti-Walpolian pamphlets Marmor Norfolciense and A Complete Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage, and various journalistic squibs; a competent abridgment of the debate on the offer of the Crown to Oliver Cromwell; the long series of articles on the Seven Years’ War and related matters, such as the notorious trial and execution of Admiral Byng; the four pamphlets of the 1770s—The False Alarm, Thoughts on…Falkland’s Islands, The Patriot, and Taxation No Tyranny.
Full annotation sets the events dealt with in their historical background and provides a continuous narrative of Johnson’s “political biography.” A substantial introduction attempts an analysis of Johnson’s political attitudes.
Donald J. Greene is Leo S. Bing Professor of English at the University of Southern California.
A full list of writings by Johnson with significant political content would include such pieces as his poem London, a number of his sermons, and essays in The Idler and elsewhere. This volume presents a collection of writings with a political emphasis which do not readily fall into one or another of these categories: his early anti-Walpolian pamphlets Marmor Norfolciense and A Complete Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage, and various journalistic squibs; a competent abridgment of the debate on the offer of the Crown to Oliver Cromwell; the long series of articles on the Seven Years’ War and related matters, such as the notorious trial and execution of Admiral Byng; the four pamphlets of the 1770s—The False Alarm, Thoughts on…Falkland’s Islands, The Patriot, and Taxation No Tyranny.
Full annotation sets the events dealt with in their historical background and provides a continuous narrative of Johnson’s “political biography.” A substantial introduction attempts an analysis of Johnson’s political attitudes.
Donald J. Greene is Leo S. Bing Professor of English at the University of Southern California.
527 pages, Hardcover
First published September 10, 1977
About the author
Samuel Johnson
4,921 books438 followersPeople note British writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, known as "Doctor Johnson," for his
Dictionary of the English Language
(1755), for
Lives of the Poets
(1781), and for his series of essays, published under the titles
The Rambler
(1752) and
The Idler
(1758).
Samuel Johnson used the first consistent Universal Etymological English Dictionary , first published in 1721, of British lexicographer Nathan Bailey as a reference.
Beginning as a journalist on Grub street, this English author made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, and editor. People described Johnson as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history." James Boswell subjected him to Life of Samuel Johnson , one of the most celebrated biographies in English. This biography alongside other biographies, documented behavior and mannerisms of Johnson in such detail that they informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS), a condition unknown to 18th-century physicians. He presented a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tics confused some persons on their first encounters.
Johnson attended Pembroke college, Oxford for a year before his lack of funds compelled him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write essays for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage and the poem " The Vanity of Human Wishes ." Christian morality permeated works of Johnson, a devout and compassionate man. He, a conservative Anglican, nevertheless respected persons of other denominations that demonstrated a commitment to teachings of Christ.
After nine years of work, people in 1755 published his preeminent Dictionary of the English Language, bringing him popularity and success until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1905, a century and a half later. In the following years, he published essays, an influential annotated edition of plays of William Shakespeare, and the well-read novel Rasselas . In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland , travel narrative of Johnson, described the journey. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets , which includes biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets.
After a series of illnesses, Johnson died on the evening; people buried his body in Westminster abbey. In the years following death, people began to recognize a lasting effect of Samuel Johnson on literary criticism even as the only great critic of English literature.
Samuel Johnson used the first consistent Universal Etymological English Dictionary , first published in 1721, of British lexicographer Nathan Bailey as a reference.
Beginning as a journalist on Grub street, this English author made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, and editor. People described Johnson as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history." James Boswell subjected him to Life of Samuel Johnson , one of the most celebrated biographies in English. This biography alongside other biographies, documented behavior and mannerisms of Johnson in such detail that they informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS), a condition unknown to 18th-century physicians. He presented a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tics confused some persons on their first encounters.
Johnson attended Pembroke college, Oxford for a year before his lack of funds compelled him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write essays for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage and the poem " The Vanity of Human Wishes ." Christian morality permeated works of Johnson, a devout and compassionate man. He, a conservative Anglican, nevertheless respected persons of other denominations that demonstrated a commitment to teachings of Christ.
After nine years of work, people in 1755 published his preeminent Dictionary of the English Language, bringing him popularity and success until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1905, a century and a half later. In the following years, he published essays, an influential annotated edition of plays of William Shakespeare, and the well-read novel Rasselas . In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland , travel narrative of Johnson, described the journey. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets , which includes biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets.
After a series of illnesses, Johnson died on the evening; people buried his body in Westminster abbey. In the years following death, people began to recognize a lasting effect of Samuel Johnson on literary criticism even as the only great critic of English literature.
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