The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) and Two
Rambler papers (1750), by Samuel Johnson

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Title: The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) and Two Rambler papers (1750)

Author: Samuel Johnson

Release Date: September 2, 2004 [EBook #13350]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SAMUEL JOHNSON

_The Vanity of Human Wishes_
(1749)

and

Two _Rambler_ papers
(1750)

With an Introduction by
Bertrand H. Bronson

Publication Number 22
(Series VI, No. 2)

Los Angeles
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
University of California
1950

_GENERAL EDITORS_

H. RICHARD ARCHER, _Clark Memorial Library_
RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_
EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_
H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_

_ASSISTANT EDITORS_

W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_
JOHN LOFTIS, _University of California, Los Angeles_

_ADVISORY EDITORS_

EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_
BENJAMIN BOYCE, _University of Nebraska_
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_
CLEANTH BROOKS, _Yale University_
JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_
ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_
SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_
ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_
JAMES SUTHERLAND, _Queen Mary College, London_

INTRODUCTION

The pieces reproduced in this little volume are now beginning to bid for
notice from their third century of readers. At the time they were written,
although Johnson had already done enough miscellaneous literary work to
fill several substantial volumes, his name, far from identifying an "Age",
was virtually unknown to the general public. _The Vanity of Human Wishes_
was the first of his writings to bear his name on its face. There were
some who knew him to be the author of the vigorous satire, _London_, and
of the still more remarkable biographical study, _An Account of the Life
of Mr. Richard Savage_; and a few intereste