Lipking has written a "writer's life," examining Johnson not from the viewpoint of celebrity, but as a history of his writing, and "career development" as an author. Lipking's thesis is that the transformations Johnson underwent in his career went a long way in shaping what we think of authors, and in that interest spends the bulk of his time examining Johnson's written words. While one may initially think this approach is redundant with Kernan's ("Samuel Johnson and the Impact of Print"), in fact Lipking is far less concerned with the publishing industry and more concerned with Johnson's writings themselves. A more direct comparison might be made to DeMaria's "Samuel Johnson," but even there the comparison is weak. Like Lipking, DeMaria analyzes Johnson's writings, but Lipking is less concerned about context, and concentrates far more on the writings.