Samuel Johnson

Biography

Samuel Johnson was an English writer, critic, poet and lexicographer, often called simply Dr Johnson. Born in Lichfield, the son of a poor bookseller, he had to leave Oxford for lack of money and went to London to earn his living by his pen. For nine years he worked, with only a few assistants, on his Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, which remained the leading English dictionary for more than a century. He also wrote essays for his own periodicals, The Rambler and The Idler, the philosophical tale Rasselas and an edition of Shakespeare.

His last great work, Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, joins biography and criticism. He was a brilliant talker, and his friend James Boswell recorded his conversation in The Life of Samuel Johnson, one of the most famous biographies ever written. He suffered all his life from poor health and melancholy, and when he died in 1784 he was buried in Westminster Abbey.