A Bibliography of
Johnsonian Studies,
1986-1998

Jack Lynch

This bibliography -- published in The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual, 10 (1999), 405-519, and set to appear in a separate pamphlet form in early 2000 -- catalogues over 1,800 items on Samuel Johnson published since 1985, the last year covered in Donald Greene and John A. Vance, A Bibliography of Johnsonian Studies, 1970-1985 (Victoria: Univ. of Victoria, 1987). It brings the work of Clifford, Greene, and Vance up to date through the end of 1997 (with less thorough coverage through 1998 and even into 1999), and includes a number of items omitted from previous instalments of the bibliography.

The items range from scholarly monographs, editions, and Festschriften through illustrations of Johnson's cats and an episode of the sitcom Blackadder. I have tried to include every book, journal essay, dissertation, book review, newspaper or magazine article, or book chapter that makes some substantial contribution to Johnsonian studies, excluding only those pieces that seemed to me to be of no value -- especially ephemera such as printed announcements of events for the various Johnson Societies, posters, bookmarks, sales brochures, postcards, and so on. But more significant pieces have doubtless escaped my attention; tracking down reviews and book chapters has sometimes been difficult work.

In a few respects, the scope of coverage of this bibliography is broader than that of the Clifford-Greene-Vance series. Whereas they were especially selective in cataloguing dissertations and theses, I have tried to be more comprehensive, including as many doctoral-level dissertations and theses as I could find, and even a few M.A. theses which have been catalogued by major libraries. And for the first time, electronic resources have made their way into the bibliography. Two major editions -- one of the Dictionary, another of Johnson's and Boswell's nearly complete works -- have appeared on CD-ROM, and appear here. Web sites, however, appear, disappear, and change location so quickly that they present the bibliographer with a moving target, and I have therefore decided against trying to catalogue Internet sites and on-line electronic texts in print.

The earlier Johnsonian bibliographies were organized around a taxonomy developed by James Clifford in 1951, in which each item was listed under a topical rubric. Although the system has served its purpose well over the decades, much scholarship in the eighties and nineties does not lend itself to the kind of simple categorization possible in the age of New Criticism. Interdisciplinarity has been a favorite buzzword in recent years, and comparative studies are now far more common than they were fifty years ago. Such changes in critical fashion pose problems for the bibliographer. Is Chester Chapin's "Religion and the Nature of Samuel Johnson's Toryism," for example, better catalogued under heading 20, "Political and Economic Writings and Views," or heading 24, "Diaries, Prayers, Sermons (Includes Discussions of Johnson's Religious Beliefs)"? Or should it just be lumped in an omnibus category like 10/6, "General Assessments of Johnson and Miscellaneous Comment," or 11/9, "Johnson's Thought"?

The categories themselves, moreover, are begining to show their age; changes in scholarly interest over the last half-century have rendered many headings obsolete and left other areas uncovered. To categorize Margaret Anne Doody's piece on "The Law, the Page, and the Body of Women: Murder and Murderess in the Age of Johnson," for instance, under 11/8, "Johnson's Views and Attitudes on Various Subjects: Women and Marriage," looks positively condescending, and yet the old taxonomy provides nothing more fitting. Clifford in 1951 could not have foreseen many topics of modern critical interest, and even if an article like Tim Dean's Lacanian reading of Johnson's lexicographical theory could be shoe-horned into category 3, "Medical and Psychological Works," there's simply nowhere to put many studies informed by postcolonial theory, gender studies, and deconstruction.

Rather than pigeonholing essays into the nearest available category, therefore, or reworking the entire taxonomy, I have listed items alphabetically by their authors, and then chronologically by their date of publication. Editions appear under the name of their authors (e.g., Johnson, Boswell, Chambers) rather than their editors, while reviews appear after the books they comment on. The print version contains a topical index; the on-line version is searchable.

I owe thanks to both institutions and individuals for help in compiling this bibliography: I'm grateful to the staffs of Van Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania, the Dana and Alexander Libraries of Rutgers University, Firestone Library of Princeton University, the Bobst Library of New York University, the Butler Library of Columbia University, the Newark Public Library, the New York Public Library, the British Library, the University of Birmingham Library, and the Bodleian Library. James G. Basker, Michael Bundock, J. C. D. Clark, Greg Clingham, Matthew Davis, Robert DeMaria, Catherine Dille, W. C. Dowling, Charles H. Hinnant, Nicholas Hudson, Paul J. Korshin, Anne McDermott, Michael J. Marcuse, Daisuke Nagashima, Mark Pedreira, Adam Potkay, Steven Scherwatzky, Richard B. Sher, Stuart Sherman, Paul Tankard, Daniel Traister, and Howard Weinbrot all provided helpful additions and corrections, for which I am grateful. And the late Donald J. Greene was kind enough to read through and comment on an earlier draft of this bibliography in the days immediately before his death.