WorkSamuel Johnson

Lives of the English Poets

Lives of the English Poets (1779–81) Inferred

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) · 1779–81

InferredFuller quotes Johnson's definition of poetic power/genius, attributing it to 'Johnson.' Title inferred as Lives of the English Poets (Life of Pope, 1781), the most likely source.

QuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1839

Journals

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist1record

V. New York

VI. Europe

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1839—

Journal April 1839

p41

quoted · readManuscript page

“Johnson speaks of it as 'that power which constitutes a poet, that power, without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert, that energy which collects, combines amplifies and animates.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal April 1839." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (Box A); Box 5 (99).

Inferred Fuller quotes Johnson's definition of poetic power/genius, attributing it to 'Johnson.' Title inferred as Lives of the English Poets (Life of Pope, 1781), the most likely source.