Dinner with Joseph Johnson

Daisy Hay’s Dinner with Joseph Johnson explores the world of the radical publisher who brought together some of the greatest minds of the late eighteenth century. Through Johnson’s dinners, Hay reconstructs a vibrant intellectual network that included William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The book is both biography and cultural history, offering insight into the intersection of literature, politics, and sociability. Hay writes with elegance, making the past feel lively and relevant. It’s a feast of ideas as well as personalities.