The Making of Johnson's Dictionary 1746-1773 / Edition 2

by Allen Reddick

Overview

Following the discovery of manuscript materials, including hundreds of unpublished additions and changes, for Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, Allen Reddick describes the conception, composition, writing, and subsequent revision of the first great English dictionary, and the only dictionary created by a great writer. In this second edition of his acclaimed study, Reddick incorporates new commentary and scholarship, and situates The Making of Johnson's Dictionary in current critical and scholarly debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521568388
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/26/1996
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Publishing and Printing History
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. Introduction: Johnson's 'Mind … on the stretch': A Dictionary of the English Language; 2. 'The plan of my undertaking': the composition and purpose of the Plan of a Dictionary; 3. 'I can do it in three years': a false start on the Dictionary; 4. 'Ended, though not completed': the first edition published; 5. 'I know not how to get loose': the fourth edition; 6. 'Unexpected truth': the use of poetical authorities; 7. 'Factious in a factious age': theology and politics in the fourth edition; 8. 'The world must, at present, take it as it is': Johnson's Dictionary after 1773; Appendices; Notes; Revised and expanded index.

Editorial Reviews

"...a major contribution to Johnsonian studies sure to endure the test of time." Eighteenth-Century Studies

"...a fascinating and wonderful piece of scholarly detective work....The chapter that Reddick bases solely on his new discoveries....is as good a single chapter as anyone has written in any book on Johnson of the last thirty years." The Age of Johnson

"An important, exact, and fascinating book." Bibliographical Society of America

From the Publisher