Anniversary Essays on Johnson's Dictionary [Hardcover]

A collection of original essays celebrating the 250th anniversary of the publication of the Dictionary.To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the publication of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, this volume brings together fourteen original essays by international scholars of literature, lexicology, linguistics and bibliography. These essays present fresh scholarship on the Dictionary and open up novel perspectives and directions for future research.To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the publication of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, this volume brings together fourteen original essays by international scholars of literature, lexicology, linguistics and bibliography. These essays present fresh scholarship on the Dictionary and open up novel perspectives and directions for future research.Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, the first great English dictionary and one of the most famous books in the English language, appeared in April 1755. To commemorate the 250th anniversary, this volume brings together fourteen original essays by international scholars representing several disciplines: literature, lexicology, linguistics and bibliography. The essays explore familiar and unfamiliar aspects of Johnson's masterpiece, ranging from the history of patronage to the book's typographical design, from the political background to the treatment of compound words. Challenging the myths surrounding the book and offering the most comprehensive and wide-ranging study of the Dictionary ever attempted, these essays present fresh scholarship on the Dictionary and open up novel perspectives and directions for future research.List of illustrations; List of contributors; List of abbreviations and cue-titles; Introduction Jack Lynch and Anne McDermott; 1. The mythology of Johnson's Dictionary Paul J. Korshin; 2. Dictionaries and power from Palsgrave to Johnson Ian Lancashire; 3. What Johnson's illustrative quotations illustrate: language and viewpoint in the Dictionary HowalãÏ