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Samuel Johnson
1709-1783
The Age of Johnson: A style of balance,
simple elegance and great symmetry.
Childhood
Born to older parents, sickly, too weak to cry
 Nursed by a wet-nurse
 Contracted a tubercular infection called
scrofula
 Taken to Queen Anne
 Early school and gingerbread
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Youth
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Overcame physical ailments
Father loses bookstore
Start and stop genius: Hamlet
Scholarship becomes avenue to
success
Boxer Uncle taught him to fight—he
would later fend off four robbers
and hold them at bay until the
police arrive
He became an avid swimmer, ice
skater and climber-continued into
his 70’s
University Schooling
Legacy provides funds
 Proclivity for debate
 Oxford University—attended
only one year due to limited funds.
Never graduated
 Converts to Christianity
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Next Stages
He is heavy, ugly and brilliant
 Floundered in deep depression for several
years.
 Marries a woman 15 years older
 Moves to London with Garrick
 Begins to write at the encouragement of
friends
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Companions and Friends
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David Garrick
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Alexander Pope
William Hogarth
Dictionary of the English Language
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Johnson produces alone over 9
years with the help of 5 runners
French employ 40 men who
spent 40 years to produce.
Johnson provides definition,
pronunciation, diction and
illustrates the word from
literature
Dictionary—43,000 definitions
and 110,000 citations
Publication and Canals
Literary Accomplishments
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Poetry— London written in imitation of Juvenal’s satire
on Rome
Here malice, rapine, accident conspire,
And now a rabble rages, now a fire;
their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,
and here the fell attorney prowls for prey;
here falling houses thunder on your head,
and here a female atheist talks you dead....
This mournful truth is everywhere confessed,
Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed.
Shakespearean Commentary
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The work of a correct and regular writer is a
garden accurately formed and diligently
planted, varied with shades and scented with
flowers; the composition of Shakespeare is a
forest, in which oaks extend their branches,
and pines tower in the air, interspersed
sometimes with weeds and brambles, and
sometimes giving shelter to myrtles and to
roses; filling the eye with awful pomp, and
gratifying the mind with endless diversity.
The Rambler
13: The
invalidity of all excuses for betraying
secrets.
64: The requisites to true friendship.
90: The pauses in English poetry adjusted.
134: Idleness an anxious and miserable state.
156: The laws of writing not always indisputable.
159: The nature and remedies of bashfulness.
183: The influence of envy and interest
compared.
207: The folly of continuing too long upon the
stage.
Rasselas
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In the spring of
1759 he wrote a
short novel, The
History of
Rasselas, Prince
of Abyssinia.
Meets James Boswell
The Scotsman would befriend
Dr. Johnson and eventually
author the greatest biography
ever written.
 Contains vignettes of the
“stuff Dr. Johnson’s life was
made of.”
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His latter years
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Deep devotion to God
Struggle with depression; found solace in the
presence of friends.
Love for the poor. “And just as he would give all
the silver in his pocket to the poor who watched
him as he left the house, so, on returning late at
night, he for years had been putting pennies into
the hands of children lying asleep on thresholds
so that they could buy breakfast in the morning.”
Dr Samuel Johnson, critic, poet, essayist,
biographer and conversationalist is one of
England's best-known literary figures and
dominated 18th century London's literary
life.
 He was also known for his great wit and
aphorisms, and after Shakespeare, with
more than a thousand quotes to his name,
Johnson became the most quoted of
English writers.
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