Samuel Johnson (1696-1772)

Beardsley, Eben Edwards. Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson, D. D. New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1887.

Bothell, Larry Lee. "Cloak and Gown: A Study of Religion and Learning in the Early Career of Samuel Johnson of Connecticut." Doctoral dissertation, Princeton University, 1967. Emphasized are Johnson's early years. His "ex­change of a Puritan cloak for an Anglican gown was Johnson's way of resolving controversial issues affecting religion and learning in a common Anglo-Ameri­can culture." (from the abstract)

Carroll, Peter N. The Other Samuel Johnson: A Psychohistory of Early New England. Rutherford, NJ.: Fairleigh-Dickinson University Press, 1979. This work re­ceived very mixed reviews, mostly criticizing the effort at psychobiography as misguided and simplistic.

DeMille, George E., and Gerlach, Don R. "Samuel Johnson, Parson of 'Stratford in New England.'" CHS Bulletin 45(0ctober, 1980)4:97-114. An excellent short study based on extensive research. Focus is on the establishment of the Anglican Congregation in Stratford. Citations.

Ellis, Joseph J. The New England Mind in Transition: Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, 1696-1772. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973. This study ends just be­fore Johnson became president of King's College. An intellectual biography, it deals with Johnson's religious and philosophical ideas. Based on a 1969 Yale dissertation. Fine bibliographical essay.

Girardi, Donald Francis Marc. "The American Doctor Johnson: Anglican Piety and the Eighteenth-Century Mind." Doctoral dissertation, Columbia Univer­sity, 1973. A study of Johnson's ideas—political and theological.

Hornberger, Theodore. "Samuel Johnson of Yale and King's College: A Note on the Relation of Science and Religion in Provincial America." New England Quarterly 8(September, 1935)3:378-97. An examination of Johnson's attitudes toward science, which Hornberger says were confused and only half digested. Theological logic dominated scientific logic.

Murray, Scan Collins. "The Reverend Samuel Johnson, 1696-1772: Anglican Protagonist in Colonial America." Doctoral dissertation. State University of New York at Buffalo, 1975. A full-scale, long biography.

Schneider, Herbert, and Schneider, Carol, eds. Samuel Johnson, President of King's College, His Career and Writings. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929. Long a standard work, this book is still overall the most useful published treat­ment, though in part superseded by Ellis.

 

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