That is why Johnson is important: he is the patron saint of literary faith. And our love of him can only increase when we see, as we do once again in these fresh biographies, what agonies and doubts accompanied his efforts to write well and live better. Johnson’s curmudgeonly nature thankfully makes him no easy subject for saint-makers, but the litany of sufferings he endured is not small, making his achievements appear all the greater for having come from a body so wracked with tics and distempers.
via The Powers of Dr. Johnson – The New York Review of Books.
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from jeffmacintyre.com: The Powers of Dr. Johnson http://bit.ly/p88aM
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