As part of the effort to write this biography of Sam Johnson, I’ve used Twitter as a way to connect with people who have a wide variety knowledge of the 18th century. Not just people who study Johnson — in fact I think few of them are active Johnson scholars in the sense that they […]
Hey, thanks for asking! I’ve completed (with the help of an excellent web design team and of an excellent editor) two activities related to the book. First, the article. I’ve now sent the final version of an article to the editor of the Transactions of the Johnson Society (Lichfield) and I believe it is slated […]
I had an epiphany this week, and definitely a secular one in which neither Jesus nor the Magi played any role. Or at least as far as I know. As I’ve said over and over again here in these blog postings, I continue to write this bio of Johnson, continue to do research, continue to […]
I am writing my biography of Samuel Johnson at the same time as I ponder between sittings how I should write it. I keep thinking of how to arrange the information, how to incorporate the personal aspects I have planned for the book, and how I write it all for the general reader. I do […]
On December 13 last year I interviewed Kathleen Lubey by phone as part of the research I am doing for this book about Samuel Johnson. The book will include a background chapter about various aspects of social life in London and England in the 18th century, and I was (and am) interested to include information […]
The Samuel Johnson Society in Lichfield, England (Johnson’s birthplace), recently started what promises to be an excellent Twitter account (@SamJohnsonSoc), where they are posting details and facts — no fake news here! — about Johnson, Lichfield, and … well, we shall see, as it has only just started a couple of weeks ago. The purpose […]
I’m referring of course to his writing style. His sartorial style was rarely a priority for him, though one of my favourite slices of an anecdote about Johnson involves an elaborate scheme his friends concocted to bring him together at a dinner with John Wilkes, who had been critical of Johnson’s dictionary but who also, […]
One of the things I’ve been gathering a lot of information about is about what I might call generically “life in the 18th century.” Given that the book is aimed at a general readership, I think it’s important to give people an idea of what it was like to live during that century. I don’t […]
Please take a look at my guest posting on the blog of the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum here. Includes an image of a painting I commissioned in 2014 for what turned out to be a bright, cubist take on one of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s portraits of Johnson.