known as Dr. Johnson
born Sept. 18, 1709, Lichfield, Staffordshire, Eng.
died Dec. 13, 1784, London
British man of letters, one of the outstanding figures of 18th-century England.
The son of a poor bookseller, he briefly attended Oxford University. He moved to London after the failure of a school he and his wife had started. He wrote for periodicals and was hired to catalog the great library of the earl of Oxford. In 1755, after eight years of labour, he produced his monumental Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the first great English dictionary, which brought him fame. He continued to write for such periodicals as The Gentleman's Magazine and The Universal Chronicle , and he almost single-handedly wrote and edited the biweekly The Rambler (175052). He also wrote plays, none of which succeeded on the stage. In 1765 he produced a critical edition of William Shakespeare with a famous preface that did much to establish Shakespeare as the centre of the literary canon. His travel writings include A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775). His Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets , 10 vol. (177981), was a significant critical work. A brilliant conversationalist, he helped found the Literary Club ( 0441; 1763), which became famous for its members of distinction, including David Garrick , Edmund Burke , Oliver Goldsmith , and Joshua Reynolds . His aphorisms helped make him one of the most frequently quoted of English writers. The biography of Johnson written by his contemporary James Boswell is one of the most admired biographies of all time.