Memoirs of the life and writings of the late Dr. Samuel Johnson
Subtitle: containing many valuable original letters, and several interesting anecdotes both of his literary and social connections. The whole authenticated by living evidence
Publisher: Printed for John Walker
Published: 1785
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 214
Description: <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;"> 12mo. f. [1] (blank), pp. [6], 197, [3] (blank). Mottled calf on boards, gilded calf on spine, raised on 4 bars with brown lettering panel. Stamp of of Alexander Gardyne.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;">In 1785 the Reverend William Shaw exploited Samuel Johnson’s patronage once again, by rushing into print – anonymously, but transparently – with the slight ‘Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Late Dr. Samuel Johnson,’ which contains a disproportionately long account of the Ossian controversy, pp. 145-166: here Shaw himself figures largely, and heroically, in third-person citations, and he is almost certainly the author of the four-page letter signed ‘Anti-Ossian,’ supposedly received by Johnson after the publication of Clark’s ‘Answer’ (see Bib# 4103344/Fr# 641). Incidentally, Shaw appears (pp. 39-44) to have given in his ‘Memoirs’ the earliest detailed history of Johnson’s own fabricated Debates in Parliament – perhaps assimilated or taken down, in conjunction with Ossianic discussions, from the horse’s mouth. See also J.L. Clifford, Dictionary Johnson: Samuel Johnson’s middle years. London, 1980, entry 3:18; ESTC, T116648.</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/permalink/01JHU_INST/1lu78g9/alma991039124239707861" rel="nofollow">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.</a></span></span></p>