The Doctor and the S(t)age: Johnson, Johnsonians, and Post-War Nostalgia

My research proposal investigates a little known work by the American bibliophile and Johnson scholar, Alfred Edward Newton (1864-1940), entitled Dr Johnson: A Play (1923). The play has no modern reprints and had a modest circulation at the time of its publication.
My hypothesis is that Dr Johnson: A Play is a very interesting product, though sadly overlooked by critical discourse. It can be approached from the vantage point of adaptation and afterlives studies, particularly as regards the influence and biographical rewritings of Samuel Johnson. However, to me the play is also clearly relevant within the intricate context of post-First World War nostalgia, which has been of special concern to such authors as Charles Dickens and Jane Austen so far.
There is no systematic study of Dr Johnson: A Play and my inquiry would be of interest not only to the Johnson community and eighteenth-century scholars at large, but also to colleagues involved in the fields of adaptation studies and cultural transits.