Abstract
Johnson is famously difficult to classify as a writer. In a great body of work that includes not only a full-scale dictionary, but (in the recently completed Yale Edition) volumes of parliamentary reports, sermons, literary annotations, writings on contemporary politics, and miscellaneous journalism, it is not easy to identify an individual text with strong name recognition or which seems intended to entertain or edify the general reading public. Against that background, Johnson's periodical essay series, The Rambler (1750-2) and The Idler (1758-60), cannot be said to have been at any time his least popular writings. In his lifetime, they were reprinted-the Rambler in 16 editions and the Idler in 5 editions-and garnered appreciative commentary and criticism and inspired imitators. When Johnson was awarded his Oxford honorary Master of Arts degree, the Chancellor's recommendation described him as 'having very eminently distinguished himself by the publication of a series of essays, excellently calculated to form the manners of the people[...] '.
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But from the mid-nineteenth century, Johnson's own most companionable writings sank out of view, as much for students of literature as for general readers, whilst Boswell's Life of Johnson seems to have been read, reprinted, edited, abridged, and quoted at an ever-increasing rate, until well into the first half of the twentieth century. It is easy to find twentieth-century writers and commentators happy to confess that they found Rasselas or The Rambler unattractive, but read the Life of Johnson again and again.
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