Autobiographical writings, including a previously unpublished diary,
comprise first volume of Works of Samuel Johnson
Although Samuel Johnson is recognized as the central English literary
figure of the second half of the eighteenth century, and the period is
often referred to as the Age of Johnson, no consequential edition of his
works has appeared since 1825, and no edition at any time has exercised
the care in presenting the complete and accurate text of his works that
modern readers require. Now, Yale University is sponsoring a new edition
of the works of Samuel Johnson, to include writings identified as his
during the last twenty-five years and not printed in any previous
collection of his works.
The complete Yale edition is expected to occupy at least twelve volumes.
It will be guided by a distinguished committee made up of Herman W.
Liebert (Yale) as chairman; Allen T. Hazen (Columbia) as general editor;
Robert F. Metzdorf (Yale) as secretary; Walter J. Bate (Harvard);
Bertrand H. Bronson (California); R. W. Chapman (Oxford); James L.
Clifford (Columbia); Robert Halsband (Hunter); Frederick W. Hilles
(Yale); Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., of New York City; Mr. and Mrs. Donald
F. Hyde, of Somerville, N.J.; William R. Keast (Cornell); Edward L.
McAdam, Jr. (New York); L. F. Powell (Oxford); S. C. Roberts
(Cambridge); and D. Nichol Smith (Oxford).
The inaugural volume in The Works of Samuel Johnson prints, for the
first time completely and together, all of his autobiographical
writings, including an unpublished diary for 1765-84, the longest and
fullest of any of Johnson's diaries now known. Here are Johnson's own
records of day-to-day events, of his mental process and spiritual life,
of his readings, his travels, and his physical condition presented in
chronological succession. The editors have provided an extensive running
commentary that illuminates and interprets Johnson's account and
constitutes a continuing narrative based on other sources and on
detailed original research.
