Johnson, Samuel

(born Sept. 18, 1709, Lichfield, Staffordshire, Eng.—died Dec. 13, 1784, London) English 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 had started. He wrote for periodicals and composed poetry, including The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), the first work he published under his name. In 1755, after eight years of labour, he produced A 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 he almost single-handedly wrote and edited the biweekly The Rambler (1750–52). Rasselas (1759) was his only long work of fiction. In 1765 he produced a critical edition of William Shakespeare with a preface that did much to establish Shakespeare as the centre of the English literary canon. Johnson's travel writings include A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775). His Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets (1779–81) was a significant critical work. A brilliant conversationalist, he helped found the Literary Club (1764), 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.