“The English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the…” — Samuel Johnson

“The English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great.”

Recording the independence and isolation behind his great lexicographical labour · Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language

Samuel Johnson

About Samuel Johnson

18 September 1709–13 December 1784

Samuel Johnson stands as one of the most imposing and fascinating figures in the history of English literature, a man whose physical bulk was matched only by the magnitude of his intellectual achievements and the breadth of his influence on the language itself. Born on September 18, 1709, in Lichfield, Staffordshire…

More by Samuel Johnson