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Article: Joseph Johnson in the 1790s.
- Article from:
- Wordsworth Circle
- Article date:
- June 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Wordsworth Circle. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This profile of Joseph Johnson, his firm, and his circle in the 1790s has several aims. (1) Marilyn Gaull's recent essay on Johnson rightly questions the various political labels applied to him and then asserts (also rightly) that "his significance is ... intellectual not political" (Gaull 266-7, 269. (2) I hope to reinforce Gaull's emphasis and to suggest why most of the labels applied to Johnson are misleading. From another perspective, I argue that Johnson's "circle" was more inclusive and perhaps more complex, both geographically and ideologically, than we have generally seen it to be (see e.g. Tyson, 66); we might better refer to the "Johnson circles." Finally, I ...