BRONSON, BERNARD H., ‘The Double Tradition of Dr. Johnson’, Journal of English Literary History, xviii (June 1951), 90–106. Reprinted in Eighteenth-Century Literature: Modern Essays in Criticism , ed. James L.Clifford, New York, 1959, 285–99. An important discussion of the ‘popular’ and ‘learned’ traditions in the response to Johnson after the publication of Boswell’s Life.
CLIFFORD, JAMES L., Johnsonian Studies, 1887–1950: A Survey and Bibliography, Minneapolis, 1951. A model bibliographical guide; the excellent ‘Survey’ is reprinted and extended to 1965 in Samuel Johnson: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Donald J.Greene, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1965, 46–62.
CLIFFORD, JAMES L., and GREENE, DONALD J., ‘A Bibliography of Johnsonian Studies, 1950–1960’, Johnsonian Studies, ed. Magdi Wahba, Cairo, 1962, 263–350. An excellent extension of the preceding item, with another valuable ‘survey’.
CLIFFORD, JAMES L., and GREENE, DONALD J., Samuel Johnson: A Survey and Bibliography of Critical Studies, London, 1971. Combines the two preceding items, while extending their chronological scope back to Johnson’s own life-time and forward to 1968.
COURTNEY, W.P., with SMITH, D.NICHOL, Bibliography of Johnson, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1915; reissued 1925. Though now out of date, contains much important material relevant to the contemporary response to Johnson. (In process of being revised; one ‘Supplement to Courtney’ was produced by R.W.Chapman and Allen T.Hazen in 1939, in Oxford Bibliographical Society
KENNEY, WILLIAM, ‘The Modern Reputation of Samuel Johnson’, unpublished dissertation, Boston University, 1956.
MCGUFFIE, HELEN L., ‘Samuel Johnson and the Hostile Press’, unpublished dissertation, Columbia University, 1961.
MORGAN, IRA L., ‘Contemporary Criticism of the Works of Johnson’, unpublished dissertation, University of Florida, 1954.
NOYES, GERTRUDE, ‘The Critical Reception of Johnson’s Dictionary in the latter eighteenth century’, Modern Philology, lii (February 1955), 175–91. Sound and authoritative.
ROWLAND, JOHN C., ‘The Reputation of Dr. Samuel Johnson in England, 1779–1835’, unpublished dissertation, Western Reserve University, 1962.
SLEDD, JAMES H., and KOLB, GWIN J., Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary: Essays in the Biography of a Book, Chicago, 1955. Very thorough and judicious.
SPITTAL, JOHN K., Contemporary Criticisms of Dr. Samuel Johnson, John Murray, London, 1923. Unedited collection of criticism from the Monthly Review.
WILES, ROY M., ‘The Contemporary Distribution of Johnson’s Rambler’, Eighteenth-Century Studies, ii (December 1968), 155–71. Illuminating analysis of the reprinting of Rambler essays in English provincial newspapers.