• The Fleeman Memorial Lecture: Johnson and Dante compared with wit and subtlety
• Dr Johnson and his kangaroo display
• Let Johnson give you a tour of his house
• Home Page attracts third US member
• Notes from the Western Idler
• Some more international Johnson networking
• Secretary pays homage to the Johnson sacred sites
• Obituary: Betty Gathergood: more than a museum curator

The Fleeman Memorial Lecture

Johnson and Dante compared with wit and subtlety

Samuel Johnson's best known essay, and arguably one of his most personal works, Rasselas, is an extensive consideration of the necessity and nature of hope and the inescapable vanity of human wishes: but what does the 18th century prose writer have in common with the great 13th century Italian poet Dante?

Some of us who heard the 1996 David Fleeman Memorial Lecture by Peter Steele on September 14 at Bell's Hotel might have been surprised that the question was put in the first place: it seemed audacious. Yet the answers which slowly unfolded delighted by their range, wit and subtlety and Flights of the Mind: Johnson and Dante is now on its way into print as the third in our series of limited edition lectures.

Peter Steele is best known as a distinguished Swift scholar, poet and Professor of English at the University of Melbourne. He is also a member of the JSA. Your Committee is considering speakers for the 1997 Fleeman Lecture and would be pleased to have your suggestions. There is a possibility that we might have an international speaker, from the USA, and a probability that we will see our first North American member at the annual seminar. As always, we expect that members will be keen to offer ideas for papers of their own.

At the Annual General Meeting preceding the Fleeman Memorial Lecture, the President, on the Society's behalf, formally took possession of a generous gift to the JSA from Mrs Isabel Fleeman - a framed limited edition print (7/175) of Johnson's fragment "On the Character and Duties of an Academick", published in John Moir's Hospitality (1793). Two hundred years later, David Fleeman persuaded the Bodleian library to purchase the only known copy of Moir's work. The JSA now has David Fleeman's copy of this second printing of Johnson's fragment, handset and printed by Gene Valentine at his Almond Tree Press in Tempe, Arizona in 1994, and decorated with caricatures of some paunchy academics by Thomas Rowlandson (1811). It includes the following remarks:

"Of him that is appointed to teach, the first business is to learn, an unintermitted attendance to reading must qualify him to be heard with profit....For such service he can be fitted only by laborious study, and study therefore is the business of his life; the business which he cannot neglect without breaking a virtual contact with the community. Ignorance in other men may be censured as idleness, in an academick it must be abhored as treachery."

Dr Johnson and his kangaroo display

The incident is mentioned in a footnote to a reference to the Rev Mr Grant by Boswell in the first edition, published in 1936, of the Tour to the Hebrides based on the then recently-discovered Boswell papers at Malahide Castle. The footnote, attributed to Carruthers, is as follows:

"Mr Grant used to relate that on this occasion Johnson was in high spirits. In the course of conversation he mentioned that Mr Banks (afterwards Sir Joseph) had, in his travels, discovered an extraordinary creature called the kangaroo. The appearance, conformation, and habits of this quadruped were of the most singular kind; and in order to render his description more vivid and graphic, Johnson rose from his seat and volunteered an imitation of the animal. The company stared; and Mr Grant said nothing could be more ludicrous than the appearance of a tall, heavy grave-looking man , like Dr Johnson, standing up to mimic the shape and motions of a kangaroo. He stood erect, put out his hands like feelers, and, gathering up the tails of his huge brown coat so as to resemble the pouch of the animal, made two or three vigorous bounds across the room."

Spooner's print, issued in a limited edition of 40, is an etching on steel plate, the image size being 40cm x 30cm, and paper size 67cm x 50.5cm. It is priced at $360(Australian) and can be ordered from Chrysalis Publishing 167 Fitzroy St, Fitzroy Vic 3065 Australia (tel: 9418 1977). The illustration is a reproduced from a photocopy of the original. The print would make a fine addition to any collection of Johnsoniana.

Click on the image above for a full screen version.

Home Page attracts third US member

"Yes, I would like to become a member of The Johnson Society of Australia. For more than 15 years I have been reading about Johnson and Boswell's 18th Century London. It all began when my husband was given a large box of books, and among them was a set of 13 volumes titled Columbia University Course in Literature, copyright 1928 by Columbia University Press.

"They were beautiful books in perfect condition, and as I was reading Volume 12, Pope to Burns, I became intrigued with Boswell. And that's how my acquaintance with the great Dr Samuel Johnson began. In that dark and dusty old bookstore, as Boswell eagerly met his (soon to be) great friend, I too, became a 'true believer'. Since then, I have ready many books about Johnson and Boswell and that most fascinating of times, 18th Century London. And, of course, my interest didn't end there. I needed more, more about their lives and families, their circle of friends, even their acquaintances. And by reading I learned of their passions about religion, the arts, royalty, laws and money. Then slowly, their lives, their circle of friends, and their passions became mine. In other words, I was hooked!

"For instance, I became much enamoured of their gentle friend and artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. At my local library I found a remarkable old book, Sir Joshua Reynolds by William B. Boulton, which actually includes information about his daily appointments with clients, friends and dinner guests.

"At the Huntington Library near Pasadena, California, there is an extensive collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds' very large and remarkable paintings as well as examples of many other important 18th Century artists, and in their library are several very old books by Dr Samuel Johnson on display. This is a great place to visit if one is interested in 18th Century history. I often carry a list of names to libraries in order to research their lives and how they intereacted with Johnson and Boswell.

"Since my interest in Johnson, Boswell and the 18th Century has been mostly a solitary pursuit, you can imagine my delight when on the Internet I found The Johnson Society of Australia., The information regarding your 3rd Annual Seminar and Dinner and just reading about the topics...The Women in Johnson's World, Johnson and Political Correctness etc., makes me wish I could have attended. Yes, I would like to belong to The Johnson Society of Australia."

Notes from the Western Idler

The two greatest Johnsoniana collectors were there - our Patron, Viscountess Eccles and Lauren Rothschild, of California, as were such eminent Johnsonian scholars as Bruce Redford, Donald Eddy and David Vander Meulen.

To commemorate their annual meetings, the Johnsonians produce a keepsake, this year's being entitled Celebrations of the Johnsonians 1946-1996. It includes full details of each meeting, a bibliography of the publications and a photo reproduction of the title page of each keepsake. I will be happy to supply a list of the keepsakes to any member who is collecting these delightful items.

While In New York in July, I visited three great American libraries. The first was the Free Library of Philadelphia, which is a jewel in a very beautiful city. There I was treated to the famous three and a-half-minute his tory of the book, where one is shown, in rapid succession, a Sumerian tablet some 5000 years old, an Egyptian papyrus, a medieval manuscript, a page from the Gutenberg Bible and finally, leaves from 18th Century printing. Inside this library is one whole room faithfully reconstructed as a fine 19th Century "gentleman's library" including such treasures as Dickens' desk.

In New York I visited the Grolier Club and was shown its treasures by librarian Martin Antoneti, a confirmed Johnsonian. This beautiful building houses a unique society, now more than 120 years old, which is totally devoted to the fine book arts. It has a superb collection of booksellers' catalogues dating back to the earliest examples of this form of publication. Martin was kind enough to arrange an introduction to the librarian at the J.P. Morgan Library, where I saw the finest known example of a Gutenberg Bible. What a great pleasure to a collector it is to be shown this first of all printed books.

I was then shown through the innermost recesses of this amazing institution and was gratified to find an Australian working in the restoration section. This great library has an open policy towards serious scholars and must be seen by any visitor to New York.

In London I visited Sally Edgecombe at J. Clark-Hall Ltd. She keeps her beautiful shop at 22 Bride Lane, London EC4Y 8DX and , as I have mentioned before, is a specialist dealer in Johnson, Boswell and their circle. Her latest bulletin (No 15) is now available. As always, it contains some treasures. Sally is happy to deal with members of the Society and serious collectors should be on her mailing list.

Some more international Johnson networking

From the October 1996 issue of the JSCR newsletter, sent to us by Secretary- Treasurer Thomas Kaminski of the Loyola University of Chicago, we learn that one of our New Zealand members, Professor Jocelyn Harris, of the University of Otago, delivered a paper to the society's annual meeting in April, entitled Grotesque, Classical and Pornographic Bodies in Clarissa.

Other papers presented were '!!!!'; Lady Bradshaigh's Copy of Clarissa Annotated, by Janine Barchas of the University of Chicago; Licence and Censorship: Richardson the Printer-Novelist, by John Dussinger, University of Illinois; Johnson in Coleridgean Hands, by James Engel, Harvard University; Johnson's Life of Savage and the Emergence of Literary Biography, by George Justice, Marquette University; Lord Chesterfield's Letters to His Daughter on the Tenure Track: A Pastirody, by Alan McKenzie, Purdue University; The Odd Couple: Laurence Sterne and John Norris of Bemerton, by Melvyn New, University of Florida; Samuel Johnson's Prose Style: Uncovering the Horn of Plenty, by Mark Pedreira, Boston University; and Samuel Johnson: His Politics, His Religion, and the Historians, by James Sack, University of Illiois.

We also learn from the newsletter that at the JCSR's next meeting on May 9 to 10, members of the Society will stage a reading of Irene. The featured speaker at the meeting will be Ian Simpson Ross, the biographer of Adam Smith and highly respected scholar of enlightenment thinkers in Britain.

Secretary pays homage to the Johnson sacred sites

In October, he spent the last week of a month-long overseas trip staying with an old friend in Birmingham, in the heart opf Johnson country, and wasted no time in getting to Lichfield on his second day in Britain. He was given an extremely warm welcome by Johnson Society Chairman John Wilson, who gave him a conducted tour, not only of the Birthplace Museum, but also of the Cathedral, the wonderful Staffs Bookshop and the delightful town itself.

It was very encouraging to find that the Johnson Society of Australia is held in such high regard by our more senior counterparts.

A couple of days later, Bryan took the train to Oxford, where he was shown equally warm hospitality by David Parker, Secretary of the London Johnson Society. He had, to Bryan's delight, invited Isabel Fleeman, whose husband, the late Dr David Fleeman, was the first Patron of the JSA, to join the company for lunch.

Then followed a visit to Pembroke, our Secretary being photographed admiing Johnson's teapot, and a visit to Mrs Fleeman's house where the hospitality continued. The conversation during the whole Oxford visit was memorable and the fellowship most evident.

Obituary

Betty Gathergood: more than a museum curator

It was the place where she was brought up and lived through the war years, the place where she met her future husband, and where her 80th birthday was celebrated last year. In a moving tribute to Betty Gathergood at her funeral service in Trinity Church, Windsor on October 7, Viscountess Eccles, Patron of the JSA and a long-time friend, traced Betty's association with the Johnson House as the grand-daughter of its first curator, Mrs Isabelle Dyble, the daughter of its second curator, Mrs Phillys Rowell, and as curator herself since 1993.

The young Betty , who came to the house to live with her mother at the age of three, absorbed with enthusiasm the "Johnsonian ether" and often astonished visitors with her knowledge of Johnson. During World War II, the house was three times nearly destroyed in air raids, to be saved by volunteer firemen, one of whom she later married while working as a nurse at the Royal London Hospital.

After the retirement of Mrs Rowell as curator in 1962, Margaret Eliot took over the post which she held for more than thirty years. After Margaret's death in 1993, Betty Gathergood became the third generation of her family to take over the custodianship of the Johnson House.

Lady Eccles said of Betty Gathergood: "She was sharp witted and sensible, as well as tolerant and forgiving. She liked all manner of people, was delightful in any company, pretty and feminine and ever courteous. She had high principles and knew the difference between right and wrong. As a good Christian she was cheerful in her pursuit of the good. "Her loyalty to Dr Johnson was an example of the firmness of her character. She was determined to make other people share in her devotion to this great man. Her self-sacrifice for Johnson House is something we deeply admire."