SOURCE: "'Under the Dominion of Some Woman': The Friendship of Samuel Johnson and Hester Thrale," in Mothering the Mind: Twelve Studies of Writers and Their Silent Partners, edited by Ruth Perry and Martine Watson Brownley, Holmes and Meier, 1984, pp. 64-79.

In the essay below, Brownley examines the relationship between Piozzi and Samuel Johnson.

In English literary history, the later eighteenth century is known as the Age of Johnson, after Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the most famous literary figure of the time. In addition to his monumental Dictionary of the English Language, Johnson was known for his poems, his periodical essays, the short fictional Rasselas, his edition of Shakespeare, and numerous biographical and critical works. Equally renowned for his conversation, which James Boswell immortalized in his great biography, Johnson dominated his age by the force of his personality as well as his writings.

[horace] Walpole Writes to Mrs. Carter About Piozzi's Travels, June 13th, 1789: