Dedications, a tricky business
Tim Dowling writing on the fraught business of the dedication at The Guardian states
The dedication began life as a display of fawning gratitude towards a patron, sometimes in direct exchange for cash. Shakespeare is said to have received £1,000 for two particularly obsequious dedications to the Earl of Southampton. As writers came to rely less on patronage, the personal dedication - to peer, mentor or loved one - became fashionable. Boswell's dedication to Sir Joshua Reynolds in the first volume of A Life of Johnson ("My Dear Sir, Every liberal motive that can actuate ...
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