title: The Lives of the Poets: A Selection (Oxford World's Classics)
author: Samuel Johnson
description: `Review from previous edition 'Although it is hard to find words of sufficient praise for it, this is a great and classic edition' ' Henry Woudhuysen, The New Rambler<br /><br />`'my book of the decade' ' Brian Vickers, TLS<br /><br />`'a marvelous scholarly performance' ' Frank Kermode, New York Review of Books
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Samuel Johnson
  
  
  
  
  
  [A Biography]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](images/image2.png)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  John Wain
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Viking Press
  
  
  New York
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Also by John Wain
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Poetry
  
  
  A Word Carved on a Sill
  
  
  Weep Before God Wild track
  
  
  Letters to Five Artists
  
  
  
  
  
  Fiction
  
  
  Hurry on Down
  
  
  Living in the Present
  
  
  The Contenders
  
  
  A Travelling Woman
  
  
  Nuncle and Other Stories
  
  
  Strike the Father Dead
  
  
  The Young Visitors
  
  
  Death of the Hind Legs and Other Stories
  
  
  The Smaller Sky
  
  
  A Winter in the Hills
  
  
  The Life Guard
  
  
  
  
  
  Autobiography
  
  
  Sprightly Running
  
  
  
  
  
  Criticism
  
  
  Preliminary Essays
  
  
  Essays on Literature and Ideas
  
  
  The Living World of Shakespeare
  
  
  A House for the Truth
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  © 1974 by John Wain
  
  
  
  
  
  Published in 1975 by The Viking Press, Inc.  
  625 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022
  
  
  
  
  
  Acknowledgment is made to Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., for permission to
  quote from “The Seven Sages” from Collected Poems of