The Johnson Society of Australia

The Third Annual Seminar of the Johnson Society of Australia will be held on Saturday, July 13 at Bell's Hotel, corner of Moray and Coventry Streets, South Melbourne Program

9.30-10am

Registration

10-10.45am

Maecenas and the Ministry: Johnson and his Publishers, Patrons and the Public - Paul Tankard

10.45-11am

MORNING TEA

11-1145am

The Women in Johnson's World - Bronwen Hickman

11.45-12.15pm

Johnson and the Cucumber - Barry Sheppard

12.15-12:45pm

A Night with Venus and A Year with Mercury: The Germ Theory in the Eighteenth Century - Geoff Brand

12.45-2.15pm

LUNCH

2.15-3pm

Johnson and Savage - Henry Gordon-Clark

3-3.15pm

AFTERNOON TEA

3.15-4pm

Johnson and Political Correctness - Nicholas Hudson

4-5pm

Johnson's Musical London Through the Eyes of Hogarth - John M. Thomson

5-6pm

The Nest of Singing Birds

6.30 PM

DINNER

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Subjects and Speakers

Maecenas and the Ministry:

Johnson and his Publishers, Patrons and the Public. A look at some of Johnson's most important works and how they got into print. Paul Tankard is doing Ph D research at Monash University on Johnson, the Essay and the writing of everyday life.

The Women in Johnson's World

Bronwen Hickman investigates Johnson's secret in bringing a number of charming, intelligent and attractive women under his spell, some of whom remained friends for many years. Bronwen Hickman teaches at Victoria University and the Council of Adult Education.

Johnson and the Cucumber

Barrie Sheppard, who describes himself as a Johnsonian because he enjoys the company of those who enjoy what Johnson enjoyed, takes a mainly light-hearted look at what Johnson said and did about food.

A Night with Venus and a Year with Mercury the Germ Theory in the Eighteenth Century

Geoff Brand, now a Queenscliff bookseller, trained in zoology at Monash. He proposes that the 18th Century vacuum in understanding infectious disease was due more to technical than to intellectual limitations.

Johnson and Savage

Was Thales, the disgruntled poet of Johnson's London, a picture of Richard Savage? Lawyer Henry Gordon Clark, who comes down on the negative side in this long-lived argument, has had a lifelong interest in Savage, who was the subject of his MA thesis.

Johnson and Political Correctness

How far did Johnson's Dictionary reflect contemporary taboos and how far was he subject to fashionable opinion? Nicholas Hudson, classicist, publisher and lexicographer, explores some byways of the topic.

Johnson's Musical London Through the Eyes of Hogarth

Hogarth, 12 years older than Johnson, shared some of his views on the music of the times. Dr John Thomson, who has an international reputation as a writer of musical history and biography and as an acknowledged authority on early music, brings to life, through Hogarth's engravings and musical examples, this fascinating aspect of 18th Century London.

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