Dr. Lee Morgan Authors New Book on Henry Thrale

Dr. Johnson's "Own Dear Master": The Life of Henry Thrale
By Lee Morgan, Professor Emeritus of English,
Centenary College of Louisiana

University Press of America (Lanham, Md.), 1998, $39
283 pages

SHREVEPORT, LA -- Dr. Lee Morgan, professor emeritus of English at Centenary College of Louisiana, is the author of the new book Dr. Johnson's "Own Dear Master": The Life of Henry Thrale, published by the University Press of America.

The book seeks to set the record straight about Thrale, a wealthy brewer and member of Parliament who was a patron of the arts and of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Dr. Morgan researched the book during visits to the British Museum and the libraries of Oxford University and the University of Manchester, among other research libraries, between 1980 and 1995. The 283-page book is dedicated to his late wife Lucy Strain Morgan, 1933-96.

Morgan describes the book as a social history to the extent that Thrale is important as a type, i.e. a wealthy man of business and patron of literature. It will be of interest, he noted, to those who study Dr. Johnson and, extensionally, the 18th Century.

Morgan taught at Centenary for 43 years before retiring in May 1997. He did his doctoral dissertation on Dr. Johnson and, during his entire tenure at Centenary, taught 18th Century Literature and Johnson. He has co-authored and co-edited several books and publications, including three widely used Oxford University Press Harper and Row textbooks. He maintains an office in the Centenary Library and will be back in the classroom next fall, teaching two English courses.

Dr. Johnson's "Own Dear Master" is available at the Centenary College Store, Tower Book Shop and Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Shreveport.

- 30 -