I have a lot of bits and pieces, and some of them some big bits or pieces, done for the biography about Samuel Johnson that I am writing. Some sections or scenes or passages have been fully written in advanced first draft, where when I go back to look at them, there likely won’t be […]
Johnson was 75 years old when in died in 1784. Even apart from his failing health, it was a troubled and turbulent year for him, one of dramatic changes and actions. It’s as if everything was starting to fall apart anyway, so death near the end of the year was the logical conclusion. He seemed […]
Johnson was notoriously hard on himself. Not in the sense that he doubted his intelligence or his ability to write or debate, for example, but more in the sense of himself as a person, his morality, his character, his traits. Often near the end of the year (but sometimes also throughout the year or on […]