Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson, (1709-84). British poet, essayist, and lexicographer. The son of a bookseller, he made his reputation by the poem London (1738) and the magazine The Rambler, which he wrote single-handed from 1750 to 1752. His highly influential Dictionary of the English Language (1755) took eight years to write. In 1763 he met James Boswell, his biographer; many of his finest thoughts and sayings are to be found in Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). Johnson edited all of Shakespeare’s plays and the works of 52 English poets. The prefaces were issued separately as Lives of the Poets (1781). During his last years he was a semi-invalid, holding court for writers and conversationalists at his Fleet Street home. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
