Johnson's friendship with Oliver Goldsmith (1730? - 1774) was also at times a literary collaboration. Most notably, Johnson rescued Goldsmith from debtor's prison by selling the manuscript of The Vicar of Wakefield to a publisher for £60. Johnson had a small but more active hand in the composition of Goldsmith's poem The Deserted Village, and at Boswell's request, marked out the last four lines as his own work. |