Trademarking Situational Beefcake

Were you getting tired of those tricentennial portraits of Dr. Johnson? Here's some eye candy and news of a trademark application. Both a Las Vegas porn firm and a New Jersey entrepreneur have filed applications to secure the rights to "Jersey Shore" character Michael Sorrentino's nickname for his torso: The Situation. Check out the Smoking Gun: http://tinyurl.com/yjrfdu8.

Of course, Lexiphanes was buff, too. Boswell reports that when 28-year-old Johnson arrived in London, "Mr. Wilcox, the bookseller, on being informed by him that his intention was to get his livelihood as an authour, eyed his robust frame attentively, and with a significant look said, 'You had better buy a porter's knot.'" Perhaps Mr. Sorrentino will go on to pursue a career in lexicography.

Webster's back in Menifee schools (kind of) and other reflections on naughty dictionaries

The LA Times reports that Merriam's 10th is back in the fourth and fifth grade classrooms in Menifee County, but parents can restrict their children's access to the dictionaries. The school board says the process worked--um, because no parents attended the school board meeting to discuss the issue. So is this a victory for anti-censorship forces, or inertia? Read the whole story at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dictionary27-2010jan27,0,5566022.story.

If you're interested in banned books, visit the American Library Association's page highlighting "Banned Books Week" 2010, coming in October. http://tinyurl.com/yd55duu.

Of course, Samuel Johnson must have the final word on folks who hunt through dictionaries looking for the naughty bits. Though Henry Digby Best's account may be apocryphal, it's worth repeating:

Mrs. Digby told me that when she lived in London with her sister, Mrs. Brooke, they were every now and then honoured by the visits of Dr. Johnson. He called on them one day soon after the publication of his immortal dictionary. The two ladies paid him due compliments on the occasion. Amongst other topics of praise they very much commended the omission of all naughty words. 'What! my dears! then you have been looking for them?' said the moralist. The ladies, confused at being thus caught, dropped the subject of the dictionary.

One last celebration of Johnson's tercentenary

If you're attending the Modern Language Association conference in Philadelphia this month, why not attend session 179 on Monday, 28 December 2009. Arranged by the Discussion Group on Lexicography, the broad topic "Samuel Johnson’s Tercentenary" features three papers on aesthetics, Scottish printers and physics! The session will be at 10:15–11:30 a.m., in Independence Salon III, Philadelphia Marriott. For more info on the conference, visit http://www.mla.org/. (Dr. Johnson never visited Philadelphia. In one of Lillian de la Torre's "Dr. Sam: Johnson Detector" stories, however, he does meet Benjamin Franklin in London; in fact, Johnson impersonates Franklin to help the latter escape from British government agents.)

Harold Bloom reviews new Johnson biography

Harold Bloom reviews the latest biography of the tercentenary, David Nokes' Samuel Johnson: A Life, in Sunday's New York Times Book Review. Bloom says this "workmanlike book" is also "moving and informative." Here's a link to the complete review: http://tinyurl.com/yhbq6ad.

Used Book Adventures for Johnson's Tercentenary

Here's a story to hearten all who spend too much time in antique malls and library booksales: http://tinyurl.com/ybs3hvl.

Moral: just because you own a book doesn't mean you shouldn't buy another copy.

Happy Birthday Samuel Johnson!

I'll just list a few of the many commemorations in honor of the 300th anniversary of the author of The Dictionary of the English Language:

"Samuel Johnson and the Virtue of Capitalism," in the Wall Street Journal

http://tinyurl.com/ngfeml

"A Birthday Card for Dr. Johnson" and the synonymy of "drudge," in the Visual Thesaurus

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?word=drudge

"The Powers of Dr. Johnson" in The New York Review of Books

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23111

"The Book that Influenced All Others," in BBC Magazine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8255720.stm

"Samuel Johnson on the Quest for Happiness," again in The Wall Street Journal

http://tinyurl.com/puy7h7
"A Man of Letters," in The Telegraph (Calcutta)

http://tinyurl.com/mjhcds

Gnothi Seauton by Samuel Johnson

We'll continue our celebration of the great Cham's 300th birthday (coming up on Friday!) with a link to Johnson's poem, translated into English. All practising lexicographers should read it, and probably tack a copy over their desks. Here's the peroration:

What then remains? Must I, in slow decline,
To mute inglorious ease old age resign?
Or, bold ambition kindling in my breast,
Attempt some arduous task? Or, were it best,
Brooding o'er lexicons to pass the day,
And in that labour drudge my life away?

For the rest of the poem and a good contextualizing essay, see Carol Rumens' column in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/sep/14/poem-week-dr-johnson.

Johnson at 300: A Houghton Library Symposium

What a great symposium the Houghton Library presented last week! About 100 Johnsonians gathered at Harvard 27-29 August 2009, to discuss Samuel Johnson, his works, his circle, and his influence, on the 300th anniversary of his birth. A number of DSNA members participated, including Chris Pearce, speaking on Johnson's Dictionary and the illustrative quotations; Giovanni Iamartino, on Guiseppe Baretti and the Early Italian Reception of Johnson's works; and Lisa Berglund, who gave a paper on Hester Lynch Piozzi's British Synonymy.

Thomas Horrocks and John Overholt (acting and assistant curators of the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection) have put together a wonderful exhibition, "A Monument More Durable Than Brass”: The Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson," on view till 14 November 2009. You can check out the online version here: http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/johnson/. The catalog will be available from Harvard University Press.

Johnson at 300: A Houghton Library Symposium

For more information on the symposium, scheduled for 27-29 August, visit the Houghton Library website at:

http://tinyurl.com/dmmr7y

BOOKS: The Gargantuan and Terrifying Lexicographer

SAMUEL JOHNSON: A BIOGRAPHY
By Peter Martin, Harvard University Press, $35, 608 pages

SAMUEL JOHNSON: THE STRUGGLE
By Jeffrey Meyers, Basic Books, $35, 552 pages

REVIEWED BY JAMES SRODES
It should have been one of the great meetings in the evolution of the English language. In the late 1750s, Dr. Samuel Johnson, famed for his monumental "Dictionary of the English Language," attended a London meeting of a charity that sought to teach orphaned and abandoned children of all races throughout the American colonies. Another attendee was Benjamin Franklin, equally famous for his electricity discoveries and his authorship of the internationally popular "Poor Richard's Almanack."

To continue reading this article, visit http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/25/books-the-gargantuan-and-terrifying-lexicographer/

New Yorker review of two Johnson biographies

Adam Gopnik reviews Peter Martin's Samuel Johnson and Jeffrey Meyers' Samuel Johnson: The Struggle. Visit http://tinyurl.com/5votuw.

MLA 2009, Philadelphia, Dec 27-30

Dr. Johnson's Tercentenary

Papers invited in honor of 300th year of Johnson's birth. Papers may address Johnson's dictionary specifically, or associated topics, such as single-author dictionaries, Johnson's role in the formation of the English literary canon, or contemporary uses of Johnson's work. All papers must be presented in 20 minutes and all speakers must be members of the MLA by April 1. Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to Felicia Jean Steele (The College of New Jersey), steele@tcnj.edu, no later than March 15, 2009.

Johnson Word-a-Day

In celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of Johnson’s birth in 1709, a definition from the first edition of Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) will be posted each day for readers’ lexiconic delight on Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary, the Beinecke’s new word-a-day dictionary blog. Words will be taken from the annotated proof copy of the first edition, extra-illustrated with Johnson’s and his helpers’ manuscript corrections, held in the collections of Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

LA Times review of new Samuel Johnson biography

'Samuel Johnson: The Struggle' by Jeffrey Meyers. Review by Tim Rutten, December 20, 2008

If you survey the geography of modern letters, three books stand out as signposts marking the beginning of paths that lead decisively away from all that went before. Augustine's "Confessions," the first memoir of an inner life, is one such work. So is Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote," which is the first inarguably modern novel. The third is James Boswell's "The Life of Samuel Johnson," the earliest recognizable modern biography.

To read the rest of the review, visit http://tinyurl.com/7k9nbq.

Lexicography Topics at MLA convention

MLA annual convention, San Francisco, December 2008

Sunday, 28 December

322. Whose Dictionary Is It Anyway?1:45–3:00 p.m., Golden Gate 5, Hilton.
Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Lexicography
Presiding: Jeffery A. Triggs, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
1. “Wanting a Name: Anonymity and Johnson’s Dictionary,” Gillian Paku, Harvard Univ.
2. “Authored by God: The Religious Demands on the New England Syllabary,” Michael S. Joseph, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
3. “Peirce’s Century,” Jeffery A. Triggs