Samuel Johnson and James Boswell spent the autumn of 1773 touring through the Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland as far west as the islands of Skye, Raasay, Coll, Mull, Inchkenneth and Iona. Both kept detailed notes of their impressions, and later published separate accounts of their journey. These works contain some of the finest pieces of travel writing ever produced: they are also magnificent historical documents as well as portraits of two extraordinary men of letters. Together they paint a vivid picture of a society which was still almost unknown to the Europe of the Enlightenment. Entertaining, profound, and marvellously readable, they are a valuable chronicle of a lost age and a fascinating people. For the first time, Ronald Black's edition brings together Johnson's and Boswell's accounts of each of the six stages of the two men's journey - Lowlands, Skye, Coll, Mull and back to the mainland. Illustrated with prints by Thomas Rowlandson, it includes a critical introduction, translations of the Latin texts and brief notes.

'I am engaged to write little Lives, and little Prefaces, to a little edition of the English Poets.' So wrote Samuel Johnson to James Boswell. Such understatement! It is difficult to believe he is writing about about what Walter Jackson Bate has described as 'one of the masterpieces in the history of both biography and literary criticism.' The occasion for the work was humdrum enough. It was conceived as a countermove, by thirty-six leading London booksellers and publishers, to an 'invasion of what we call our Literary Property.' In other words, a Scottish firm, the Apollo Press, were already publishing pocket-size volumes in a series called The British Poets. Samuel Johnson was recruited to provide the apparatus for the London equivalent. From the very first life - Abraham Cowley - is was clear he was going to do much more than that. Johnson was at the height of his powers, and this was a peculiarly congenial task. In all, he wrote fifty-two lives. He was paid a mere 200 guineas. He didn't grumble saying instead, 'The fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but I have written too much.' Of this great work T. S. Eliot wrote, 'Considering all the temptations to which one is exposed in judging contemporary writing, all the prejudices which one is tempted to indulge in judging writers of the immediately preceding generation, I view Johnson's Lives of the Poets as a masterpiece of the judicial bench.' Faber Finds, in the year that celebrates the 300th anniversary of Samuel Johnson's birth, is reissuing a great work in a great edition. George Birkbeck Hill was the most celebrated nineteenth-century Samuel Johnson scholar. His edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson may be his chef d'oeuvre but his edition of Johnson's Lives of the Poets is not far behind it. It is a work of enduring scholarship which only recently has had to take second place to Roger Lonsdale's magnificent edition. Contents of Volume I: Cowley, Denham, Milton, Butler, Rochester, Roscommon, Otway, Waller, Pomfret, Dorset, Stepney, J. Philips, Walsh, Dryden. Contents of Volume II: Smith, Duke, King, Sprat, Halifax, Parnell, Garth, Rowe, Addison, Hughes, Sheffield, Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Fenton, Gay, Granville, Yalden, Tickell, Hammond. Somervile, Savage. Contents of Volume III: Swift, Broome, Pope, Pitt, Thomson, Watts, A.Philips, West, Collins, Dyer, Shenstone, Young, Mallet, Akenside, Gray, Lyttelton.

'I am engaged to write little Lives, and little Prefaces, to a little edition of the English Poets.' So wrote Samuel Johnson to James Boswell. Such understatement! It is difficult to believe he is writing about about what Walter Jackson Bate has described as 'one of the masterpieces in the history of both biography and literary criticism.' The occasion for the work was humdrum enough. It was conceived as a countermove, by thirty-six leading London booksellers and publishers, to an 'invasion of what we call our Literary Property.' In other words, a Scottish firm, the Apollo Press, were already publishing pocket-size volumes in a series called The British Poets. Samuel Johnson was recruited to provide the apparatus for the London equivalent. From the very first life - Abraham Cowley - is was clear he was going to do much more than that. Johnson was at the height of his powers, and this was a peculiarly congenial task. In all, he wrote fifty-two lives. He was paid a mere 200 guineas. He didn't grumble saying instead, 'The fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but I have written too much.' Of this great work T. S. Eliot wrote, 'Considering all the temptations to which one is exposed in judging contemporary writing, all the prejudices which one is tempted to indulge in judging writers of the immediately preceding generation, I view Johnson's Lives of the Poets as a masterpiece of the judicial bench.' Faber Finds, in the year that celebrates the 300th anniversary of Samuel Johnson's birth, is reissuing a great work in a great edition. George Birkbeck Hill was the most celebrated nineteenth-century Samuel Johnson scholar. His edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson may be his chef d'oeuvre but his edition of Johnson's Lives of the Poets is not far behind it. It is a work of enduring scholarship which only recently has had to take second place to Roger Lonsdale's magnificent edition. Contents of Volume I: Cowley, Denham, Milton, Butler, Rochester, Roscommon, Otway, Waller, Pomfret, Dorset, Stepney, J. Philips, Walsh, Dryden. Contents of Volume II: Smith, Duke, King, Sprat, Halifax, Parnell, Garth, Rowe, Addison, Hughes, Sheffield, Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Fenton, Gay, Granville, Yalden, Tickell, Hammond. Somervile, Savage. Contents of Volume III: Swift, Broome, Pope, Pitt, Thomson, Watts, A.Philips, West, Collins, Dyer, Shenstone, Young, Mallet, Akenside, Gray, Lyttelton.

'I am engaged to write little Lives, and little Prefaces, to a little edition of the English Poets.' So wrote Samuel Johnson to James Boswell. Such understatement! It is difficult to believe he is writing about about what Walter Jackson Bate has described as 'one of the masterpieces in the history of both biography and literary criticism.' The occasion for the work was humdrum enough. It was conceived as a countermove, by thirty-six leading London booksellers and publishers, to an 'invasion of what we call our Literary Property.' In other words, a Scottish firm, the Apollo Press, were already publishing pocket-size volumes in a series called The British Poets. Samuel Johnson was recruited to provide the apparatus for the London equivalent. From the very first life - Abraham Cowley - is was clear he was going to do much more than that. Johnson was at the height of his powers, and this was a peculiarly congenial task. In all, he wrote fifty-two lives. He was paid a mere 200 guineas. He didn't grumble saying instead, 'The fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but I have written too much.' Of this great work T. S. Eliot wrote, 'Considering all the temptations to which one is exposed in judging contemporary writing, all the prejudices which one is tempted to indulge in judging writers of the immediately preceding generation, I view Johnson's Lives of the Poets as a masterpiece of the judicial bench.' Faber Finds, in the year that celebrates the 300th anniversary of Samuel Johnson's birth, is reissuing a great work in a great edition. George Birkbeck Hill was the most celebrated nineteenth-century Samuel Johnson scholar. His edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson may be his chef d'oeuvre but his edition of Johnson's Lives of the Poets is not far behind it. It is a work of enduring scholarship which only recently has had to take second place to Roger Lonsdale's magnificent edition. Contents of Volume I: Cowley, Denham, Milton, Butler, Rochester, Roscommon, Otway, Waller, Pomfret, Dorset, Stepney, J. Philips, Walsh, Dryden. Contents of Volume II: Smith, Duke, King, Sprat, Halifax, Parnell, Garth, Rowe, Addison, Hughes, Sheffield, Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Fenton, Gay, Granville, Yalden, Tickell, Hammond. Somervile, Savage. Contents of Volume III: Swift, Broome, Pope, Pitt, Thomson, Watts, A.Philips, West, Collins, Dyer, Shenstone, Young, Mallet, Akenside, Gray, Lyttelton.

A one-volume collection of the prose and poetry of eighteenth-century Britain's pre-eminent lexicographer, critic, biographer, and poet Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson was eighteenth-century Britain's preeminent man of letters, and his influence endures to this day. He excelled as a moral and literary critic, biographer, lexicographer, and poet. This anthology, designed to make Johnson's essential works accessible to students and general readers, draws its texts from the definitive Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson. In most cases, texts are included in full rather than excerpted. The anthology includes many essays from The Rambler and other periodicals; Rasselas; the prefaces to Johnson's Dictionary and his edition of Shakespeare; the complete Lives of Cowley, Milton, Pope, Savage, and Gray, as well as generous selections from A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Some parts are arranged thematically, allowing readers to focus on such topics as religion, marriage, war, and literature. The anthology includes a biographical introduction, and its ample annotation updates and enlarges the commentary in the YaleEdition.

The eighteenth century produced a remarkable array of thinkers whose influence in the development of free societies and free institutions is incalculable. Among these thinkers were Mandeville, Hutcheson, Smith, Hume, and Burke. And their time is known as the Age of Johnson. "Samuel Johnson: Political Writings" contains twenty-four of Johnson's essays on the great social, economic, and political issues of his time. These include "Taxation No Tyranny"--in which Johnson defended the British Crown against the American revolutionaries--and "An Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain," "Thoughts on the Coronation of King George III," and "The Patriot," which is one of Johnson's principal writings during the American Revolution. In his introduction, Donald J. Greene writes, "it may help to understand [Johnson's] political thinking if we view it in the tradition of what might be called 'skeptical' (or 'radical' or 'empirical') conservatism, the essential feature of which is distrust of grandiose "a priori" theory and dogma as the basis for political action." The Liberty Fund edition is a paperback version of Volume 10 in The Yale Johnson.

Originally printed in 1904 as a limited edition of two hundred and fifty copies, this book contains a reprint of the 1716 edition of Sir Thomas Browne's Christian Morals. Brown offers a range of advice on subjects such as charity, true goodness and justice. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Browne's work or in eighteenth-century British philosophy.

One of the most celebrated individuals of English literature, Samuel Johnson (1709-84) was a defining figure of his age. In addition to his celebrated labours as a lexicographer, Johnson distinguished himself as a poet, essayist, critic, biographer and editor. The writer and society hostess Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821) was an unconventional woman of great intellectual vivacity. She became a close friend of Johnson, whom she met through her first husband, the brewer Henry Thrale, whose ailing business Johnson did much to support. As well as writing essays, poetry, memoirs and travel diaries, she was one of the first women to produce works on philology and history. First published in 1788 - two years after her groundbreaking Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, which anticipated Boswell's biography - these letters offer a captivating glimpse into their daily lives and concerns. Volume 1 covers the period 1765 to 1777.

One of the most celebrated individuals of English literature, Samuel Johnson (1709-84) was a defining figure of his age. In addition to his celebrated labours as a lexicographer, Johnson distinguished himself as a poet, essayist, critic, biographer and editor. The writer and society hostess Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821) was an unconventional woman of great intellectual vivacity. She became a close friend of Johnson, whom she met through her first husband, the brewer Henry Thrale, whose ailing business Johnson did much to support. As well as writing essays, poetry, memoirs and travel diaries, she was one of the first women to produce works on philology and history. First published in 1788 - two years after her groundbreaking Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, which anticipated Boswell's biography - these letters offer a captivating glimpse into their daily lives and concerns. Volume 2 covers the period 1777 to 1784.

Originally published in 1921 as part of the Cambridge Plain Texts series, this volume contains fifteen papers by Samuel Johnson taken from The Idler, a series of 103 essays largely written by Johnson and published in London weekly The Universal Chronicle between 1758 and 1760. A short editorial introduction is also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the works of Johnson.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 1 is entirely devoted to a biography of Johnson by Hawkins, his close friend. Although Boswell's 1791 Life is much better known, Hawkins had been acquainted with Johnson for far longer, and was present at his death. Although his narrative is less colourful than that of Boswell, he had a better understanding of some aspects of Johnson's character, especially regarding his religious beliefs, and Boswell did not hesitate to borrow from this work.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 2 contains the first part of his Lives of the Poets, his last major work. This was a commission to provide short accounts of over fifty poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and set a new standard for English literary biography. Although not all of the subjects have been regarded as eminent by posterity, and Johnson was criticised for brusque treatment of well-connected courtier poets now largely forgotten, the work was a great success.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 3 contains the second part of his Lives of the Poets, his last major work. This was a commission to provide short accounts of over fifty poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it set a new standard for English literary biography. Although not all of the subjects have been regarded as eminent by posterity, and Johnson was criticised for brusque treatment of well-connected courtier poets now largely forgotten, the work was a great success.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 4 contains the third part of his Lives of the Poets, his last major work. This was a commission to provide short accounts of over fifty poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and set a new standard for English literary biography. Although not all of the subjects have been regarded as eminent by posterity, the work was a great success. The volume also includes miscellaneous historical and literary biographies of figures such as Paolo Sarpi, Sir Francis Drake and Roger Ascham.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 5 contains the first part of The Rambler, the periodical published by Johnson twice a week between 1750 and 1752. Modelled on Addison's Spectator, the essays address a wide range of social, religious, political and literary themes, and are not exclusively by Johnson himself: there are contributions by others, particularly women writers such as Hester Chapone and Elizabeth Carter. The Rambler adopted an 'elevated' style, and topics range from criticism of the emerging novel genre to discussions of humanitarian issues such as prostitution and capital punishment.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 6 contains the second part of The Rambler, the periodical published by Johnson twice a week between 1750 and 1752. Modelled on Addison's Spectator, the essays address a wide range of social, religious, political and literary themes, and are not exclusively by Johnson himself: there are contributions by others, particularly women writers such as Hester Chapone and Elizabeth Carter. The Rambler adopted an 'elevated' style, and topics range from criticism of the emerging novel genre to discussions of humanitarian issues such as prostitution and capital punishment.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 7 contains the final part of The Rambler, the periodical published by Johnson twice a week between 1750 and 1752. Modelled on Addison's Spectator, the essays address a wide range of social, religious, political and literary themes, and are not exclusively by Johnson himself: there are contributions by others, particularly women writers such as Hester Chapone and Elizabeth Carter. The Rambler adopted an 'elevated' style, and topics range from criticism of the emerging novel genre to discussions of humanitarian issues such as prostitution and capital punishment.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 8 contains The Idler, the 103 essays originally published by Johnson in the Universal Chronicle between 1758 and 1760, and published in one volume in 1761. These were more relaxed and rambling in style than those published in The Rambler, and were very popular. A common thread is the follies of the literary world - Johnson defines criticism as 'a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense'. Others touch on marriage, scholarship, and travelling.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 9 includes The Adventurer, the sequel to The Rambler, partly written by Johnson, papers about the famous Dictionary and his edition of the works of Shakespeare, various critical pieces, and an account of the Harleian Library. It also includes prefaces to other works, including Dodsley's The Preceptor, and Rolt's Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. (According to Boswell, Johnson did not actually read the latter work before writing the preface to it.)

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 10 contains a mixture of items - political tracts on taxation and current affairs; miscellaneous short works including book reviews and papers on agriculture, French prisoners of war, and the building of Blackfriars' Bridge; and A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. These show the range of his interests and the ease with which he could turn his pen to any topic.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 11 contains poetry in English and Latin, prayers, and a variety of literary forms - a fantasy, The Vision of Theodore, Johnson's only play, Irene, Rasselas, which uses an oriental tale and a French form to meditate on the folly of the quest for human happiness, and The Vanity of Human Wishes, based on one of Juvenal's satires. There is also an index to the eleven-volume set.

'If a man is to write A Panegyrick, he may keep vices out of sight; but if he professes to write A Life, he must represent it really as it was.' In the last of his major writings, Samuel Johnson looked back over the previous two centuries of English Literature in order to describe the personalities as well as the achievements of the leading English poets. The major Lives - of Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Pope - are memorable cameos of the life of writing in which Johnson is as attentive to human frailty as to literary prowess. The shorter Lives preserve some of Johnson's most piercing, critical judgements. Unsentimental, opinionated, and quotable, The Lives of the Poets continues to influence the reputations of the writers concerned. It is one of the greatest works of English criticism, but also one of the most humanly diverting. This selection of the Lives of ten of the most important poets draws its text from Roger Lonsdale's authoritative complete edition. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

When Samuel Johnson unicycled around Australia, he met some awesome people. And before we had to lock down, he and his other sister, Hilde, were travelling the country talking at schools, community groups and at the side of busy streets to spread their message about how to kick cancer in the face hole. But in the process they connected and listened as people shared their own stories - not just about how cancer impacted them, but about love, fighting fires, making families out of choice not blood, knitting, being there and being surprised by life and finding solace from strangers. They decided those stories should be shared and the idea for Heroes Next Door was born. The result is a moving, funny, irreverent, inspiring and big-hearted book that shows us all that resilience and kindness are what make the difference, and that you don't have to travel far to find good people ... often they are right next door.

Lives that Never Grow Old Part of a radical new series –edited by Richard Holmes – that recovers the great classical tradition of English biography. Johnson’s book is a biographical masterpiece, still thrilling to read and vividly alive. When he first came to London, young Samuel Johnson was befriended by the flamboyant poet, playwright and blackmailer, Richard Savage. Walking the backstreets at night, he learned Savage’s extraordinary story – supposedly persecuted by a ‘cruel mother’, sentenced to death for a murder in a brothel, appointed Volunteer Poet Laureate to the Queen, and finally broken and outcast. With this moving and intimate account, Johnson created a brilliant black comedy of 18th-century Grub Street which revolutionised English biography by its psychological realism. Yet Savage’s destructive charm and delusions of grandeur sometimes even threatened to entangle Johnson himself.