Note 9 to the Introduction of the author's Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W. M. Thackeray, which University Press of Virginia published in 1992. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
Collins, p. 127. It is perhaps ironic that Johnson, who is often credited with being the "first writer in English to depend truly on the literary marketplace," actually "depended heavily on a royal pension that rewarded him for some political work - work sinister enough to place Johnson's name not on the civil list but on the crown's secret service list" (Wilson, p. 99).
Last modified: 4 April 2001