Social Question
Yes it was clever. But was Samuel Johnson's advice to writers correct?
British poet, essayist, moralist and literary critic Dr. Samuel Johnson said, “Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.” With all due respect to the great man of letters, it seems to me that if I followed this advice assiduously, I would end up with little left in the manuscript but a few disjointed sentences.
Granted it’s a clever bon mot, but can you name a single work Samuel Johnson wrote? No cheating. Name one off the top of your head, not by Googling for it. Doesn’t one have to wonder about the soundness of Johnson’s editing advice when today Johnson is best remembered for, Life of Samuel Johnson, which was written not by Johnson but by Scottish biographer James Boswell.
As taken with Johnson as Boswell obviously was, the younger man may himself have ignored this gem of editorial advice. Having met Dr. Johnson when he was just 22 years old, Boswell kept a series of Journals of his experiences and correspondence with the good doctor over a period of 32 years. When these were published, they filled 18 volumes.
What do you think Johnson meant by his advice? How do you edit and omit when you write for publication of for online distribution you really care about?
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