Painting by Reynolds
Samuel Johnson was born today in 1709( 18/9/1709)
Samuel Johnson was one of the most famous literary figures of the 18th century. His best-known work is his 'Dictionary of the English Language'.
He was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire. He was scarred from scrofula, thanks to nursing by a tubercular nursemaid; as a result he suffered a loss of hearing and was blind in one eye. His father was a bookseller. He was educated at Lichfield Grammar School and spent a brief period at Oxford University, but was forced to leave due to lack of money.
His poverty at Oxford was noticed by another student, who left a pair of new shoes outside Johnson's door during the night; while Johnson's poverty was itself humiliating, the fact that another would notice and make Johnson a beneficiary of charity enraged him. He threw out the new pair of shoes,
During this period he went into a severe depression; his friend Edmund Hector helped him remain productive, in spite of the depression.
Unable to find teaching work, he drifted into a writing career. In 1735, he married Elizabeth Porter, a widow more than 20 years his senior. In 1737, Johnson moved to London where he struggled to support himself through journalism, writing on a huge variety of subjects. He gradually acquired a literary reputation and in 1747 a syndicate of printers commissioned him to compile his 'Dictionary of the English Language'. The task took eight years, and Johnson employed six assistants, all of them working in his house off Fleet Street.
The dictionary was published on 15 April 1755. It was not the first such dictionary, but was certainly the most important at that time. In Johnson's lifetime five further editions were published, and a sixth came out when he died.
Johnson was continually short of money, despite the success of his dictionary. In 1762, his financial situation was alleviated when he was awarded a government pension.
In 1763, he met James Boswell, a young Scottish lawyer, whose 'Life of Johnson' (published in 1791) did much to spread Johnson's name. In 1773, Johnson and Boswell set out on a three-month tour of the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides. Both wrote accounts of their travels. Johnson spent considerable time in Edinburgh in the 1770s.
Johnson's output include a complete edition of Shakespeare; a number of frequently cited political tracts; sermons; a description of his 1773 tour to Scotland with Boswell, with considerable discussion of the change of an era; and a series of biographies of numerous British poets (The Lives of the Poets), commissioned to accompany reprints of each poet's works.
Johnson was by now the leader of the London literary world, and a friend of notable artists and writers such as Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith and David Garrick.
Johnson died on 13 December 1784 and is buried at Westminster Abbey.
Johnson is famous for his quotes.
What follows are ten of the wittiest and most interesting quotes by the great Samuel Johnson . He has often been praised for his wit and wisdom (and outspokenness) on all manner of subjects. Here are ten favourite quotes from the great Doctor, on a wide variety of topics. Most of these quotes come to us via his biographer, James Boswell , whose Life of Samuel Johnson is often called one of the great literary biographies.
On life: 'Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.'
On reading: 'A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.'
On money: 'Whatever you have, spend less.'
On free speech: 'Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it.'
On pubs: 'There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.'
On getting drunk: 'A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.'
On hard work: 'What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.'
On writing: 'Read over your compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.'
On bedtime: 'Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.'
And some culinary advice: 'A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out as good for nothing.'
PPR
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