'Writing as he does with energy and grace, Kernan is a thoughtful guide to the world Johnson lived in and helped to make...What is best about Kernan's book is that it is up to date but not voguish; he has assimilated new scholarship but not been overpowered by it.' - W.B. Carnochan, The Times Literary Supplement

The description for this book, Samuel Johnson and the Impact of Print: (Originally published as Printing Technology, Letters, and Samuel Johnson), will be forthcoming.

"Kernan picks up the image of Johnson where recent biographers left off. Samuel Johnson, he sums up, was 'skeptical, deeply troubled in mind, mad at times, neurotic nearly always, radically doubtful of himself and of the social values he at the same time so stoutly defended.' To that 'existential Johnson,' Kernan adds an image of Johnson as a model of success in the emergent print culture. This makes for fascinating reading."---Thomas D'Evelyn, The Christian Science Monitor