Johnson's Quarrel with Swift
Richman, Jordan Paul
Johnson was very close to Swift in the difficulties he had to face because of his poor health and difficult social positions. Both of these tortured men were able to impose their names on the two phases of 18th century life: The Age of Swift from 1700 to 1740 and the Age of Johnson to 1789. Swift predominated in the age of satire and Johnson in the age of biography and literary criticism.