Samuel Johnson: 21st-Century Oxford Authors(21st-Century Oxford Authors)

The Samuel Johnson volume in the 21st-Century Oxford Authors series offers a generous selection of Johnson's most important writings, drawn from all periods of his life. It reflects almost completely the range of literary forms in which Johnson wrote. In keeping with the the approach of the series, the texts are presented in chronological order and the text chosen is, wherever possible, the text of the first published version. As well as an expansive introduction and a detailed chronology of Johnson's life, David Womersley provides helpful annotation to guide and orient the reader.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chronology Note on the Texts Part I: Early Poetry and Prose to 1750 Translation of Horace, Odes, I.xxii (pre-1725) Translation of Horace, Epode, II (prob. 1726) Translation of Horace, Odes, II.xiv (prob. 1726) Translation of Horace, Odes, II.xx (prob. 1726) 'Festina Lente' (prob. late 1726) 'The Young Author' (1729) 'Annals' (1734) - from birth to 1719 Letter to Cave, 25 November, 1734 'Preface' to Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia (1 February, 1735) Letter to Cave, 12 July, 1737 London (12 May, 1738) 'Debates in the Senate of Magna Lilliputia' (June, 1738) 'A Prayer on my Birth-Day' (7 September, 1738) 'On Gay's Epitaph' (October, 1738) 'Life of Boerhaave' (January, 1739) A Compleat Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage (May, 1739) 'Prologue' to Lethe (April, 1740) 'An Epitaph on Claudy Philips, a Musician' (September, 1740) 'On Epitaphs' (December, 1740) Review of the Memoirs of the Duchess of Marlborough (March, 1742) Proposal for the Harleian Miscellany (November, 1742) Letter to Edward Cave, autumn 1743 Life of Savage (11 February, 1744) Introduction to the Harleian Miscellany (April, 1744) 'To Miss -, on her playing upon the harpsichord' (1746?) Prologue Spoken by Mr Garrick at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury-Lane (September, 1747) 'The Vision of Theodore' (7 April, 1748) The Vanity of Human Wishes (9 January, 1749) 'The Vanity of Wealth' (February, 1750) Part II: 'Dictionary' Johnson The Rambler (1750-1752): 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 39, 41, 45, 47, 49, 60, 63, 64, 70,71, 72, 73, 76, 77, 79, 85, 87, 90, 93, 101, 106, 108, 113, 114, 115, 121, 129, 134, 135, 137, 142, 146, 148, 151, 156, 158, 159, 161, 165, 167, 168, 170, 171, 176, 181, 183, 184, 188, 191, 196, 207, 208 'Life of Cheynel' (July, 1751) Sermon . . . for the Funeral of his Wife (prob. March, 1752) 'Prayers Composed on the Death of My Wife' (24 April-6 May 1752) The Adventurer (1752-1754): 39, 45, 50, 67, 69, 84, 85, 95, 99, 102, 107, 111, 119, 126, 137, 138 Diary entries, 22, 23, and 29 April, 1753 Letter to Thomas Warton, 16 July, 1754 'Preface' to the Dictionary of the English Language (15 April, 1755) Letter to the Earl of Chesterfield, 7 February, 1755 Letter to Bennet Langton, 6 May, 1755 Letter to Miss Hill Boothby, 31 December, 1755 Letter to Miss Hill Boothby, 8 January, 1756 Letter to Samuel Richardson, 16 March, 1756 'Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain' (15 May, 1756) Review of Warton, Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope (15 May, 1756) Review of Blackwell, Memoirs of the Court of Augustus (15 May, 1756) 'Observations on the Present State of Affairs' (15 August, 1756) Review of Hanway, An Essay on Tea (15 May, 1757) Review of Jenyns, Free Inquiry (15 May, 1757) 'Of the Duty of a Journalist' (8 April, 1758) The Idler (8 April 1758-1760): 1, 5, 10, 17, [22], 22, 23, 27, 30, 31, 32, 36, 38, 40, 41, 44, 48, 49, 50, 51, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 65, 66, 72, 81, 84, 88, 94, 100, 103 Letter to Sarah Johnson, 20 January, 1759 Letter to William Strahan, 20 January, 1759 Letter to Lucy Porter, 23 January, 1759 Diary entry and prayer, 23 January, 1759 Rasselas (26 June, 1759) 'The Bravery of the English Common Soldiers' (January, 1760) Review of Tytler's Mary Queen of Scots (October, 1760) Part III: The Great Cham of Literature Letter to Baretti, 10 June, 1761 Letter to Boswell, 8 December, 1763 Diary entry, 21 April, 1764 'A Reply to Impromptu Verses by Baretti' (1765?) Preface to The Plays of Shakespeare (10 October, 1765) Diary entry, 1 January, 1766 'The Fountains' (1 April, 1766) Letter to Boswell, 9 September, 1769 The False Alarm (16 January, 1770) Prayer on Easter Day, 31 March, 1771 'Parodies of Percy's Hermit of Warkworth' (prob. summer 1771) '????? ???????' (12 December, 1772) Letter to Boswell, 24 February, 1773 Diary entry, 22 July, 1773 Diary entry, 25 July, 1774 The Patriot (12 October, 1774) Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (18 January, 1775) - selection Letter to James Macpherson, 20 January, 1775 Taxation No Tyranny (8 March, 1775) Diary entry, 14 April, 1775 'To Mrs Thrale on her Thirty-Fifth Birthday' (presented 24 January, 1776) Diary entry for Easter Day, 7 April, 1776 'Lines on Thomas Warton's Poems' (early 1777?) Diary entry, 28 March, 1777 'Prologue' to Hugh Kelly's A Word to the Wise (29 May, 1777) Letter to William Dodd, 26 June, 1777 Letter to Richard Farmer, 22 July, 1777 'An Extempore Elegy' (1778?) 'A Short Song of Congratulation' (August, 1780) Lives of the Poets (1781) Letter to Thomas Lawrence, 17 January, 1782 Diary entry, 20 January, 1782 Letter to Thomas Lawrence, 1 May, 1782 Letter to Boswell, 7 September, 1782 'On the Death of Dr Robert Levet' (August, 1783) Correspondence with Mrs. Thrale, 2-8 July, 1784 Letter to Lord Thurlow, 9 September, 1784 Translation of Horace, Odes, IV.vii (November, 1784) Diary entry, 5 December, 1784 Appendices Appendix A: Johnson's prayer on beginning The Rambler. Appendix B: Johnson's revisions to The Rambler, no. 1. Appendix C: Bonnell Thornton's parody of The Rambler. Notes Texts Arranged by Genre Index of Short Titles Index of First Lines Index of Persons Index of Subjects

About the Author :
David Womersley is the Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, and a fellow of St. Catherine's College.

Review :
The 1,300-page selection...under the editorship of the master scholar of the English 18th century David Womersley, is the most comprehensive volume now available. Womersley's elegant introduction interweaves biography with the literary forms that Johnson often single-handedly transformed, with compelling reflections on the anomalies and estrangements in his prose ... a richly representative volume The astonishing range of that work is fairly represented in David Womersley's selection ... By giving each of them due weight, this superb new edition -- a slab of a book -- suggests a way of putting Johnson's life and his writing back together again ... Womersley's positioning of these texts, based on attested dates of composition rather than publication, possesses biographical and critical coherence, providing the reader with a sense of Johnson's exceptional versatility in public and private life. This is easily the most comprehensive, visually attractive anthology of Johnson's poetry and prose ever produced. Its generous length permits inclusion of numerous less-known pieces; it is physically compact and easy to hold in the hands; and it includes black-and-white illustrations of title pages, a manuscript page, and a printer's proof page.