Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784), was the greatest English writer of his day and the subject of a famous biography by his friend James Boswell. Boswell preserved the wit and brilliance of Johnson’s conversation; the sharpness of his opinions on people, politics, and literature; and the vigor of his personality. These qualities enabled Johnson to outshine even the most gifted people of his age, including Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, and other members of the Literary Club, which Johnson and Reynolds founded in 1764.
Although Johnson was a remarkable man, his achievements as a writer are even more impressive. Johnson said he talked for pleasure and wrote for bread—and yet he did both well. His style marked a high point in English prose, and he wrote with a sense of the moral and intellectual responsibilities of authorship.
Early years.
Johnson was born on Sept. 18, 1709, in Lichfield, the son of a bookseller. He attended Oxford University in 1728 and 1729 but had to leave after his money ran out.
Johnson was nearly penniless when he moved to London in 1737. He contributed to The Gentleman’s Magazine from 1738 to 1743, serving chiefly as a reporter of parliamentary debates. His poem London (1738), written in the style of the Roman satirist Juvenal, brought him to the attention of the public. The major productions of this early period were a biography of his friend Richard Savage (1744) and his most famous poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), a Christianized imitation of Juvenal’s Tenth Satire.
Later years.
Between 1747 and 1755, Johnson produced almost single-handedly his massive Dictionary of the English Language, which established his fame as a scholar. He developed an equally great reputation as a teacher of moral and religious wisdom through a series of essays in The Rambler (1750-1752) and other magazines, and in his philosophical tale, Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759). The great projects of his later years were his eight-volume edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765) and his collection of essays The Lives of the English Poets (1779-1781). Some opinions in these works are eccentric. But the works are notable for their keenness and strength of judgment, and the force and polish of the writing. They established Johnson as one of the best critics in the English language.
In 1773, Johnson and Boswell toured the Hebrides Islands of Scotland. Johnson recorded his impressions of the trip in Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775). Boswell wrote a diary, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785). Johnson died on Dec. 13, 1784.
See also Boswell, James ; English literature (The Age of Johnson) ; Dictionary (Early English dictionaries) .
