Londoner of Interest: Samuel Johnson

Wikipedia

Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709-13 December 1784) was an English writer who was most famous for writing the most commonly used dictionary before the completion of the Oxford dictionary in 1928. Johnson's dictionary did not have any serious contenders for the 150 years prior to the Oxford dictionary. He was also a poet, playwright, moralist, critic, biographer, editor, and essayist.

Johnson and his family were poor for most of his life. Most of his schooling was paid for by the work he did and through charity from his friends. He attempted to finish his studies at Pembroke College but could not complete his studies due to lack of funding. 

Much of Johnson's early adulthood was spent in much pain. He battled many diseases and most likely had to live at home with his parents. Historians today have deduced from the many writings and descriptions about him that he had Tourette's Syndrome.

Johnson married Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter on the 9th July 1735, who was the widow of Johnson's good friend, Harry Porter. Their courtship was short, as Elizabeth was widowed with three children.

For a decade, Johnson's constant work on the Dictionary disrupted his and Tetty's living conditions. He employed a number of assistants for the copying and mechanical work, which filled the house with alot of noise and it became very messy. He was always busy, and kept hundreds of books around him. 

As described by John Hawkins (author): "The books he used for this purpose were what he had in his own collection, a copious but a miserably ragged one, and all such as he could borrow; which latter, if ever they came back to those that lent them, were so defaced as to be scarce worth owning."

Johnson was distracted by Tetty's poor health as she began to show signs of a terminal illness. To accommodate both his wife and his work, he moved to 17 Gough Square (Grade I listed) near his printer, William Strahan.

Just before Johnson's dictionary was published in 1755, he was awarded a Master of Arts by Oxford. He was then awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Trinity College Dublin in 1765 and by Oxford in 1775.

The Dictionary was published in April 1755. It was a large book as its pages were nearly 18 inches tall, and 20 inches wide when opened. It had 42,773 entries and only a few more were added in later editions. It was sold for £4 10s, which is approximately £350 today.

Johnson reinvigorated the Dictionary by illustrating the meanings of his words by literary quotation, of which there were approximately 114,000. The authors he used included William Shakespeare, John Milton and John Dryden. 

It was years before Johnson's Dictionary turned a profit. Authors' royalties were unknown at the time, and Johnson, once his contract to deliver the book was fulfilled, received no further money from its sale. Years later, many of its quotations would be repeated by various editions of the Webster's Dictionary and the New English Dictionary.

Out of 2000 copies, only half of the original 1st edition copies are accounted for today. Most are located in private collections, Dr Johnson’s House (17 Gough Square) has two copies and the British Library has four.

My favorite quote of Johnson's is as follows:

'The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it.' 

'Why, Sir, you find no man at all intellectual who is willing to leave London? 

No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.' 

Bust of Samuel Johnson - Wikipedia

Johnson was known for not liking the war in North America and how the British and French were taking land away from Indigenous people. Johnson thought they were hypocrites because the "Americans" wanted their own freedom from the British but enslaved black people. 

But that's a story for another time.