Johnson and Boswell
Subtitle: a biography of friendship
By: John B. Radner
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 415
ISBN-13: 9780300178753
Subjects: Friends and associates; Biography; American Authors; English Authors
Description: In this book John Radner examines the fluctuating, close, and complex friendship enjoyed by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, from the day they met in 1763 to the day when Boswell published his monumental "Life of Johnson". Drawing on everything Johnson and Boswell wrote to and about the other, this book charts the psychological currents that flowed between them as they scripted and directed their time together, questioned and advised, confided and held back. It explores the key longings and shifting tensions that distinguished this from each man's other long-term friendships, while it tracks in detail how Johnson and Boswell brought each other to life, challenged and confirmed each other, and used their deepening friendship to define and assess themselves. It tells a story that reaches through its specificity into the dynamics of most sustained friendships, with their breaks and reconnections, their silences and fresh intimacies, their continuities and transformations.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Taking charge of Boswell (1763); title: "Perpetual friendship"? (1764-1767); title: Jostling for control (1768-1771); title: New collaborations (1772); title: Embracing the biographer (1772-1773); title: Cooperation and rivalry in Scotland (14 August to 22 November 1773); title: Negotiating and competing for narrative control (14 August to 22 November 1773); title: Collaboration manqué (November 1773 to May 1775); title: Renegotiating the friendship, part 1 (1775-1777): depression, defiance, and dependency; title: Renegotiating the friendship, part 2 (1777-1778): confrontation, collaboration, and celebration; title: "Strangers to each other" (May 1778 to March 1781); title: The lives of the poets and Johnson's (auto)biography (1777-1781); title: Reconnecting (1781-1783); title: "Some time together before we are parted" (March 1783 to May 1784); title: "Love me as well as you can" (1784); title: Rewriting the Hebrides trip (1785); title: Boswell claiming his inheritance (1786-1791); title: Winning Johnson's blessing.