Samuel Johnson
JOHN HAWKINS (1719-1789)
The life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
London: J. Buckland [etc], 1787
Hawkins was a friend of Samuel Johnson, who, however, found him “a most unclubbable man,” an opinion shared by many other contemporaries. Nevertheless, Johnson made him an executor and Hawkins produced a credible biography, though it would be soon eclipsed by Boswell’s much greater work.
JAMES BOSWELL (1740-1795)
The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: comprehending an account of his studies and numerous works, in chronological order, a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons, and various original pieces of his composition, never before published: the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century, during which he flourished: in three volumes by James Boswell, Esq.
Dublin: Printed by John Chambers, for R. Cross [and 11 others] ... 1792
Perhaps the greatest biography ever written, and a work that has never been out of print. First published in London in 1791, this is the first Dublin edition. Boswell met Johnson in 1763 and their last meeting occurred in 1784, the year of Johnson’s death. Boswell relied on his notes, his conversations with others, his research, his memory, but above all on his genius for recreating Johnson the man. Though not without its faults (Boswell took liberties with some of the facts of Johnson’s life and changed some of his quotations), Boswell’s Life stands as a great work of art as well as “a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain.”
SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784)
The lives of the most eminent English poets. With critical observations on their works
London: Nichols and Son, 1800
Johnson’s Lives first appeared in 1779-81. Approached by a group of London booksellers to provide biographical prefaces for an edition of various poets, from the period of Milton onwards, Johnson agreed, relying on his extensive memory and prodigious reading. The final total was 52, including 4 minor poets suggested by Johnson himself. While the lives are not always trustworthy, and the criticism is uneven (Milton, Gray, Swift, and the metaphysical poets receive many barbs), Johnson’s Lives is a classic, entertaining and instructive. T.S. Eliot credited it “with a coherence, as well as an amplitude, which no other English criticism can claim.”
Part of the Stanley Marcus collection. Gift, Linda Marcus, 2003
SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784)
The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D. selected and arranged by Rev. William P. Page
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1841
Part of Harper’s Family Library series
JAMES BOSWELL (1740-1795)
Boswell’s London journal, 1762-1763 now first published from the original manuscript
New York, McGraw-Hill, [1950]
Prepared for the press, with introduction and notes by Frederick A. Pottle, and with a preface by Christopher Morley. Part of the Yale editions of the private papers of James Boswell.
From the collection of Stanley Marcus. Gift of Linda Marcus, 2003.