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Line 1: − + + + + + + + + − The son of a bookseller of modest means, he attended local schools and spent a year at Oxford. He was largely self-educated, using the stock in the family bookstore as his base. (There were no public libraries.) Unable to obtain a teaching position he started to write for money; in 1735 he married a wealthy widow Elizabeth Porter, née Jervis (1689–1752), twenty years his senior. He moved to London in 1737, working as a political journalist and translator and starting to earn some money from his poetry; he had no children. Line 23:
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importing lead from article I previous wrote
'''Samuel Johnson''' (1709-1784), almost invariably referred to in literary circles as '''Dr. Johnson''', was an English writer and lexicographer based in London.
'''Samuel Johnson''' (18 September 1709 (O.S.) 7 September – 13 December 1784), often referred to as '''Dr. Johnson''', was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer . Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory , and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history".<ref>Rogers, Pat (2006), "Johnson, Samuel (1709–1784)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (online ed.), Oxford University Press, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14918], retrieved 25 August 2008</ref> He is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell 's '' Life of Samuel Johnson ''.<ref name="Batexix">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=xix}}</ref>
Johnson was born in Lichfield , Staffordshire, and attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher he moved to London, where he began to write miscellaneous pieces for '' The Gentleman's Magazine ''. His early works include the biography ''The Life of Richard Savage'', the poems "London " and "The Vanity of Human Wishes", and the play ''Irene''.
After nine years of work, Johnson's ''Dictionary of the English Language '' was published in 1755; it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship."<ref name="Bate240">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=240}}</ref> The ''Dictionary'' brought Johnson popularity and success. Until the completion of the '' Oxford English Dictionary '' 150 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary.<ref name="Lynch p. 1">{{Harvnb|Lynch|2003|p= 1}}</ref> His later works included essays, an influential annotated edition of William Shakespeare's plays , and the widely read tale ''Rasselas''. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; Johnson described their travels in '' A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland ''. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential '' Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets '', a collection of biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets.
Johnson had a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tic s were confusing to some on their first encounter with him. Boswell's ''Life'', along with other biographies , documented Johnson's behaviour and mannerisms in such detail that they have informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS),<ref name="ContTSDiagnosis">{{Harvnb|Murray|1979}} and {{Harvnb|Stern|2005}}</ref> a condition not defined or diagnosed in the 18th century. After a series of illnesses he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey . In the years following his death, Johnson began to be recognised as having had a lasting effect on literary criticism, and even as the only great critic of English literature.<ref name="Winters p. 240">{{Harvnb|Winters|1943|p=240}}</ref>
==The Dictionary==
==The Dictionary==
In 1746 a consortium of publishers contracted with Johnson to produce a dictionary; he used the advance money to hire assistants and finished in nine years.
In 1746 a consortium of publishers contracted with Johnson to produce a dictionary; he used the advance money to hire assistants and finished in nine years.
===Biographies===
===Biographies===
* Bate, Walter Jackson. ''Samuel Johnson''. Harcourt, 1977.
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1564 Boswell, James. ''The Life of Samuel Johnson'']. 1791. (available online from Project Gutenberg)
==Notes==
* DeMaria, Robert. ''The Life of Samuel Johnson: A Critical Biography''. Blackwell, 1993.
{{reflist|2}}
* Lipking, Lawrence. ''Samuel Johnson: The Life of an Author''. Harvard UP, 1998.
* Martin, Peter. ''Samuel Johnson: A Biography'' (2008), standard scholarly biography
==References==
* Nokes, David. ''Samuel Johnson: A Life''. Macrae/Holt, 2009.
* {{Citation1|last=Ammerman|first=David|title=In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774|location=New York|publisher=Norton|year=1974|isbn=0-393-00787-1}}.
* Rogers, Pat. "Johnson, Samuel (1709–1784)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,'' (2004) online edn, May 2009
* {{Citation1|last=Arnold|first=Matthew|authorlink=Matthew Arnold|editor1-last=Ricks|editor1-first=Christopher|editor1-link=Christopher Ricks|title=Selected Criticism of Matthew Arnold|year=1972|publisher=New American Library|location=New York|oclc=6338231}}
===Critical studies===
* {{Citation1|last=Bate|first=Walter Jackson|authorlink=Walter Jackson Bate|title=Samuel Johnson|year=1977|publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|location=New York|isbn=0-15-179260-7}}.
* Reddick, Allen. ''The Making of Johnson's Dictionary, 1746-1773''. Cambridge UP, 1990.
* {{Citation1|last=Bate|first=Walter Jackson|title=The Achievement of Samuel Johnson|year=1955|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|oclc=355413}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Bloom|first=Harold|authorlink=Harold Bloom|contribution=Hester Thrale Piozzi 1741–1821|title=Women Memoirists Vol. II|year=1998|editor-last=Bloom|editor-first=Harold|pages=74–76|publisher=Chelsea House|location=Philadelphia|isbn=0-7910-4655-9}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Bloom|first=Harold|authorlink=Harold Bloom|title=The Western Canon|year=1995|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|isbn=0-333-64813-7}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Boswell|first=James|title=Correspondence and Other Papers of James Boswell Relating to the Making of the Life of Johnson|editor-last=Waingrow|editor-first=Marshall|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=New York|year=1969|oclc=59269}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Boswell|first=James|title=The Life of Samuel Johnson|year=1986|editor-last=Hibbert|editor-first=Christopher|publisher=Penguin Classics|location=New York|isbn=0-14-043116-0}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Clarke|first=Norma|title=Dr Johnson's Women|year=2000|publisher=Hambledon|location=London|isbn=1-85285-254-2}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Clingham|first= Greg|year=1997|contribution= Life and literature in the ''Lives''| title= The Cambridge companion to Samuel Johnson|editor1-last= Clingham|editor1-first= Greg| pages= 161–191|location= Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-55625-2}}
* {{Citation1|last=Davis|first=Bertram|contribution=Introduction|title=The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.|year=1961|editor-last=Davis|editor-first=Bertram|pages=vii–xxx|publisher=Macmillan Company|location=New York|oclc=739445}}.
* {{Citation1|last=DeMaria, Jr.|first=Robert|title=The Life of Samuel Johnson|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford|year=1994|isbn=1-55786-664-3}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Fine|first=LG|title=Samuel Johnson's illnesses|journal=J Nephrol|volume=19|issue=Suppl 10|pages=S110–4|date=May–June 2006|pmid=16874722}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Greene|first=Donald|authorlink=Donald Greene|title=Samuel Johnson: Updated Edition|publisher=Twayne Publishers|location= Boston|year=1989|isbn=0-8057-6962-5}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Greene|first=Donald|contribution=Introduction|title=Political Writings|year=2000|editor-last=Greene|editor-first=Donald|publisher=Liberty Fund|location=Indianapolis|isbn=0-86597-275-3}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Griffin|first=Dustin|title=Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2005|isbn=0-521-00959-6}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Grundy|first=Isobel|year=1997|contribution= Jane Austen and literary traditions| title= The Cambridge companion to Jane Austen|editor1-last=Copeland|editor1-first=Edward|editor2-last=McMaster|editor2-first=Juliet| pages= 189–210|location= Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-49867-8}}
* {{Citation1|last=Hawkins|first=John|title=Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.|publisher=J. Buckland|location=London|year=1787|oclc=173965}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Hibbert|first=Christopher|authorlink=Christopher Hibbert|title=The Personal History of Samuel Johnson|location=New York|publisher=Harper & Row|year=1971|isbn=0-06-011879-2}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Hitchings|first=Henry|authorlink=Henry Hitchings|title=Dr Johnson's Dictionary: The Extraordinary Story of the Book that Defined the World|publisher=John Murray|location=London|year=2005|isbn=0-7195-6631-2}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Hill|first=G. Birkbeck, editor|authorlink=George Birkbeck Norman Hill|title=Johnsonian Miscellanies|location=London|publisher=Oxford Clarendon Press|year=1897|oclc=61906024}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Hopewell|first=Sydney|title=The Book of Bosworth School, 1320–1920|year=1950|location=Leicester|publisher=W. Thornley & Son|oclc=6808364}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Johnson|first=Samuel|title=Letters| editor-last = Chapman| editor-first = R. W.|year=1952|location= Oxford|publisher=Clarendon|isbn=0-19-818538-3}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Johnson|first=Samuel|title=Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides|editor-last= Chapman|editor-first= R. W.|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1970|isbn=0-19-281072-3}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Johnson|first=Samuel|title=Major Works|year=2000|editor-last=Greene|editor-first= Donald|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-284042-8}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Kammer|first=Thomas|year=2007|chapter=Mozart in the Neurological Department: Who has the Tic?|editor1-first= Julien|editor1-last= Bogousslavsky|editor2-first= M|editor2-last= Hennerici|title=Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists, Part 2|pages=184–92|isbn=978-3-8055-8265-0|pmid= 17495512|publisher=Karger|location=Basel|volume=22|journal=Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience|doi=10.1159/0000102880}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Keymer|first=Thomas|year=1999|contribution= Johnson, Madness, and Smart|title=Christopher Smart and the Enlightenment|editor1-last=Hawes|editor1-first= Clement|location=New York, NY|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=0-312-21369-7}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Lane|first=Margaret|title=Samuel Johnson & his World|year=1975|publisher=Harper & Row Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0-06-012496-2}}.
* {{Citation1|last= Leavis|first=FR|authorlink=F. R. Leavis|title=Johnson as Critic|journal= Scrutiny (journal)|Scrutiny |volume=12|pages=187–204|year=1944}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Lynch|first=Jack|contribution=Introduction to this Edition|title=Samuel Johnson's Dictionary|year=2003|editor-last=Lynch|editor-first=Jack|pages=1–21|publisher=Walker & Co|location=New York|isbn=0-8027-1421-8}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Lynn|first=Steven|editor-last=Clingham|editor-first=Greg|contribution=Johnson's critical reception|title=Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson|year=1997|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-55625-2}}
* {{Citation1|last=Martin|first=Peter|title=Samuel Johnson:A Biography|year=2008|publisher=Belknap Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-674-03160-9}}.
* {{Citation1|last=McHenry|first=LC Jr|title=Samuel Johnson's tics and gesticulations|journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences|volume=22|issue=2|pages=152–68|date=April 1967|pmid=5341871|doi=10.1093/jhmas/XXII.2.152}}
* {{Citation1|last=Murray|first=TJ|date=16 June 1979|pmc=1599158|title=Dr Samuel Johnson's movement disorder|periodical= British Medical Journal |volume=1|issue=6178|pages=1610–14|pmid= 380753|doi=10.1136/bmj.1.6178.1610}}.
* {{Citation1|last= Murray|first= TJ|title= Samuel Johnson: his ills, his pills and his physician friends|journal=Clin Med|volume=3|issue=4|pages=368–72|date=July–August 2003|pmid=12938754}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Needham|first=John|title=The Completest Mode|location=Edinburgh|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=1982|isbn=0-85224-387-1}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Pearce|first=JMS|date=July 1994|pmc=1294650|title=Doctor Samuel Johnson: 'the Great Convulsionary' a victim of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome|journal= Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |volume=87|pages=396–399|pmid= 8046726|issue=7}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Piozzi|first=Hester|title=Thraliana: The Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (Later Mrs. Piozzi) 1776–1809|year=1951|editor1-last=Balderson|editor1-first=Katharine|publisher=Clarendon|place= Oxford|oclc= 359617}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Pittock|first=Murray|year=2004|contribution= Johnson, Boswell, and their circle|title=The Cambridge companion to English literature from 1740 to 1830|editor1-last= Keymer|editor1-first= Thomas|editor2-last= Mee|editor2-first= Jon|pages= 157–172|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-00757-7}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Rogers|first=Pat|title=Johnson and Boswell: The Transit of Caledonia|publisher=Oxford University Press|place= Oxford|year=1995|isbn=0-19-818259-7}}.
*{{Citation1|last=Sacks|first=Oliver|author-link= Oliver Sacks|date=19–26 December 1992|title=Tourette's Syndrome and creativity|journal= British Medical Journal |volume=305|issue= 6868|pages=1515–16|pmc=1884721|pmid=1286364|quote=... the case for Samuel Johnson having the syndrome, though [...] circumstantial, is extremely strong and, to my mind, entirely convincing|doi=10.1136/bmj.305.6868.1515|issue=6868}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Shapiro|first=Arthur K|authorlink=Arthur K. Shapiro|title=Gilles de la Tourette syndrome|year=1978|publisher=Raven Press|location=New York|isbn=0-89004-057-5}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Skargon|first=Yvonne|title=The Importance of Being Oscar: Lily and Hodge and Dr. Johnson|place= London|publisher=Primrose Academy|year=1999|oclc= 56542613}}.
* {{Citation1|author=Stern JS, Burza S, Robertson MM |title=Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome and its impact in the UK |journal=Postgrad Med J |volume=81 |issue=951 |pages=12–9 |date = January 2005|pmid=15640424 |doi=10.1136/pgmj.2004.023614 |quote=It is now widely accepted that Dr Samuel Johnson had Tourette's syndrome |pmc=1743178 }}.
* {{Citation1|last=Wain|first=John|title=Samuel Johnson|year=1974|publisher=Viking Press|place= New York|oclc=40318001}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Watkins|first=WBC|title=Perilous Balance: The Tragic Genius of Swift, Johnson, and Sterne|year=1960|publisher=Walker-deBerry, Inc.|place= Cambridge, MA|oclc=40318001}}.
* {{Citation1|last= Weinbrot|first= Howard D.|editor-last=Clingham|editor-first=Greg|contribution=Johnson's Poetry|title=Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson|year=1997|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-55625-2}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Wilson|first=Edmund|year=1950|contribution= Reexamining Dr. Johnson|title=Classics and Commercials|editor1-last=Wilson|editor1-first=Edmund|location=New York|publisher=Farrar, Straus & Giroux|oclc=185571431}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Wiltshire|first=John|title=Samuel Johnson in the Medical World|year=1991|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=0-521-38326-9}}.
*{{Citation1|last=Winchester|first=Simon|title=The Meaning of Everything|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-517500-4}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Winters|first=Yvor|authorlink=Yvor Winters|title=The Anatomy of Nonsense|location=Norfolk, Conn.|publisher=New Directions|year=1943|oclc=191540}}.
* {{Citation1|last=Yung|first=Kai Kin|title=Samuel Johnson, 1709–84|publisher=Herbert Press|place= London|year=1984|isbn=0-906969-45-X}}.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Samuel}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Samuel}}
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]