Associate Professor in the English department of the Newark campus of Rutgers University, specializing in the English literature of the eighteenth century. Those who have a high tolerance for boredom can peek at my CV, either in its ostentatiously unabridged incarnation or in a slightly shortened version. Those with an even higher tolerance for boredom might look at my musings on a blog, Dull in a New Way. And if you want to make an appointment with me, my calendar will show you when I'm free.
Two courses: for undergraduates, "The Development of the English Language," Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:00 to 11:30; for grads, "The Idea of the Classic in Eighteenth-Century Britain," Monday evenings. (In the autumn: an eighteenth-century novels class for undergrads, Wednesday and Friday at 11:30, and another eighteenth-century novels class for grads, Wednesday.)
Hot off the presses: my on-line guide to grammar and style, on-line for nearly as long as there's been a Web, has just appeared in an expanded version from Focus Publishing. It goes by the modest title The English Language: A User's Guide. It can be had for just $12.95 from Amazon.com.
The other recent book is Becoming Shakespeare, a popular history of Shakespeare's Nachleben from his death to his three hundredth birthday. It appeared from Walker & Co. in June 2007, and so far it's received good reviews. You can get it from Amazon.com — or, even better, you can do your part to support worthy independent booksellers like The Tattered Cover in Denver, Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis, The Penn Book Center or Joseph Fox in Philadelphia, St. Mark's or The Strand in New York, Chapters in DC, Powell's in Portland, Big Hat Books in Indianapolis, Book Passage in the Bay Area, and so on. Independent bookshops do important work and deserve all the business they can get. (They charge a little more than Amazon, but it's worth it — and no, I don't get any more money when you buy from them, so the advice is disinterested.) A UK-and-Commonwealth edition has just come out from Constable & Robinson, available from Amazon.co.uk, and — get this — a Korean edition (!) from ChungRim Publishing, also in 2008.
Other publishing news: 2008 should see two further new book titles. The first is a facsimile edition of Tristram Shandy, to be accompanied by a huge bibliography of Sterne studies since 1978. The second is my scholarly book on forgery, fakery, and fraud, Deception and Detection in Eighteenth-Century Britain, which will appear from Ashgate. That project has produced a spin-off, a biography of Shakespeare forger William Henry Ireland, but it'll take a few more years' work. In 2009, look for another trade book, provisionally titled Proper Words in Proper Places: Correct English from Shakespeare to Safire, from Walker & Co. — it's under contract, and soon I'll be turning all my attention to it.
I continue to hawk some other recent books. The US hardcover edition of my abridgment of Johnson's Dictionary should still available from Walker & Company. (A UK hardcover edition is available from Atlantic Books — new jacket, blue highlights instead of green, and no pussycats — a serious loss, that — but it's the same text. UK-niks can order it dirt-cheap, just fourteen quid, from Amazon.co.uk.) It's a bargain at twice the price, so buy two. And I'm also flogging a just-for-fun little squib, Samuel Johnson's Insults, also available from Amazon.com in hardcover and paperback. There's also a UK-and-Commonwealth edition available from Amazon.co.uk.
That's all on the trade side. In more scholarly publishing, Cambridge University Press published Anniversary Essays on Johnson's "Dictionary," edited by Yr Humble Svt and Anne McDermott, on 15 April 2005, the 250th anniversary of the Dictionary's original publication. (Okay, I confess: it's mostly an excuse for me to drop the word sestercentenary into conversation.) It's now available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. And Cambridge has just released a paperback, also available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (at almost affordable prices!).
I boasted when my first scholarly monograph, The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson, zoomed up to the 1.5 millionth bestseller on Amazon.com, leaving Distributional Ecology and Abundance of Dung and Carrion-Feeding Beetles (Scarabaeidae) in Tropical Rain Forests in Sarawak, Borneo in the dust at a pitiful number 1.596 million. But a recent check showed it at number 320,499, which is as close to "bestseller" as a professor of eighteenth-century literature is ever likely to see. I've decided, therefore, that I'm now a real-live celebrity, and will no longer waste my time talking with little people like you. I will, however, offer eight-by-ten head-shots, autographed by someone on my staff, for a modest fee.
In case this isn't enough, I edit a 500-page journal every year. From 1998 to 2005 I was Joint Editor, with Paul J. Korshin, of The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual. Paul's untimely death in March '05 means the journal is now all mine. Volume 17 appeared in September 2006; a special volume, vol. 18, containing memorial essays to Paul, has just appeared in February 2008 (with a 2007 date on the cover). Vol. 19 is in the works.
The Jack Lynch World Tour continues: over the summer I was in Oxford, London, Paris, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, and Montpellier. All this at a time when the dollar is at a quarter-century low — nice goin', Jacko. Coming up: Portland, Oregon, in March; Montreal in October; Oxford in December and January. It's a good thing English professors are paid so extravagantly.
The list of courses I've taught was getting too long for this page, so I've moved it all to another page.
All my classes (and anyone who's curious) are encouraged to consult my guide to grammar and style, my in-progress guide called "Getting an A on an English Paper," and my very rough and incomplete guide to literary terms.
A few chunks of my dissertation are available on-line — but really, would it kill you to pony up the dough for The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson? And as I find the time to post papers I've delivered, they'll appear on their own page.
I've collected some miscellaneous links, some of them as close to fun as a downtrodden professor is allowed to get.
Please feel free contact me with questions, comments, requests, and recommendations. E-mail is easiest. You can also write to
Jack Lynch
Department of English
Rutgers University
360 M. L. King Blvd.
Newark, N.J. 07102
My office phone is (973) 353-5279 x 516, but I check my voice mail only from the office, so it's an unreliable way of reaching me, especially when classes aren't in session.
Some general notes about these pages might make some things clear; you're encouraged to check them out before you contact me.