...very readable and full of ideas. 3 Accessories to a Life Story: From Written Diaries to Video Diaries I have often thought that there has rarely passed...judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. (Samuel Johnson, 1750) It is perhaps as difficult to write a good life as to live one. (Lytton Strachey,...

...London: Falmer Press, pp. 75-88. 394 27 The Call of Life Stories in Ethnographic Research KEN PLUMMER I have often thought that there has rarely passed...judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful ... (Samuel Johnson, c.1760) We are safe in saying that personal life records, as complete as possible,...

...ordinary life would be a valuable undertaking. "I have often thought," he wrote in Rambler No. 60 in 1750, "that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful" (Johnson 168). But he was also acutely aware of the way that human beings moved in textual grooves...

...division between public and private, and privileging the personal experience of the ordinary individual: "I have often thought that there has rarely passed...judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful" (Rambler 6o, 1n, 32o). In biography and the sentimental histories of the Scottish Enlightenment, the...

...reader, are never less than a complex challenge. Chapter 2 • MAJORITY BIOGRAPHY 1: SAMUEL JOHNSON I have often thought that there has rarely passed...judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. Johnson, Rambler No. 60 (1750) Samuel Johnson, Biographer Modern literary biography that takes as its...

...has made her peace with Dr Johnson and has accepted his challenge: 'I have often thought that there rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful.'6 Shields's pursuit of some of the questions that have sparked the debate of theorists of biography...

...articles, using the criteria you used for each in Questions 3 and 5 above. 304 Biographical Information "There has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful." Samuel Johnson Introduction A biography is a written history of a person's life and accomplishments....

...armies, and the scheme of conspirators" does not much interest the common reader. He goes on to say, "I have often thought that there has rarely passed...judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful," a principle observed by each of our novelists in one way or another.31 No believer in human equality...

...Their 'life studies' would be valuable and should be encouraged. Johnson's dictum should be recalled: that 'there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful'. In Johnson's view, knowledge of 'mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients' are likely to be...

...Narrative. London: Falmer Press, pp. 75-88. 27 The Call of Life Stories in Ethnographic Research KEN PLUMMER I have often thought that there has rarely passed...judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful ... (Samuel Johnson, c.1760) We are safe in saying that personal life records, as complete as possible,...