Hester Lynch Piozzi, Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. during the last twenty years of his life

Emma Stanbridge (University of Keele)

Ed. by Rita Singer, Aberystwyth University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.2: Welsh Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kirsti Bohata (Swansea University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele), Rita Singer (Aberystwyth University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1786

Places

England (Publication/ performance)
Wales (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Biography (any)

Resources

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Published in 1786,

Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson

is a biography by the literary salonnière Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821). Samuel Johnson (1709-84) was a friend of Piozzi’s first husband, Henry Thrale (1724-81). After they first met in 1765, he and Piozzi, then Hester Thrale, forged a strong companionship that outlasted her first husband’s death. Until Piozzi’s remarriage to the musician Gabriel Piozzi in 1784, which occasioned their dramatic estrangement, Johnson resided for long stretches at the Thrale family home, Streatham Park.

Anecdotes

is thus primarily a record of the time Johnson spent with the Thrales. Though less well known than other contemporary biographies of Johnson, most obviously James Boswell’s

Life of Samuel Johnson

(1791), Piozzi’s

Anecdotes

provide…

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2389 words

Citation: Stanbridge, Emma. "Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. during the last twenty years of his life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 June 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40669, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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