Johnson, Samuel

Johnson, Samuel
(1709-1784)
   The son of a poor bookseller of Lichfield, Staffordshire, he was educated at the local grammar school and from 1728 to 1731 at Pembroke College, Oxford, but poverty forced him to leave without graduating. He started working for Gentleman's Magazine in London in 1733. His renowned Dictionary of the English Language- which took him nine years to complete-was published in 1755. He started a series of bi-weekly moral and religious essays under the title The Rambler in 1750. In 1763 he met James Boswell, his future biographer (see entry). Trinity College, Dublin, awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1765, followed in 1775 with one from Oxford. His Lives of the English Poets- a project commissioned by a consortium of London booksellers - was published in 1779-1781. He was buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Some of his poems: "Anacreon's Dove," "Charade on Dr. Thomas Barnard," "Drury-lane Prologue Spoken by Mr. Garrick," "Epigram on Colley Cibber," "London: A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal," "On Losing the Power of Speech," "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (excerpts), "The Winter's Walk."
   Sources: An American Anthology, 1787-1900. Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. Houghton Mifflin, 1900. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu: 8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Gentleman's Magazine (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/journals/srchgm.htm). Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). Samuel Johnson's Lives of the English Poets, 1779-1781 (http://www2.hn.psu.edu/Faculty/KKemmerer/poets/preface.htm). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Complete English Poems of Samuel Johnson. J.D. Fleeman, ed. Penguin Books, 1971. The Golden Treasury of Longer Poems. Ernest Rhys, ed. E.P. Dutton, 1949. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).

British and Irish poets. A biographical dictionary. . 2015.

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  • Johnson,Samuel — Johnson, Samuel. Known as “Dr. Johnson.” 1709 1784. British writer and lexicographer. The leading literary figure in the second half of the 18th century, he wrote Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and Lives of the Poets (1779 1781). * * * …   Universalium

  • Johnson, Samuel — 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… …   Universalium

  • Johnson, Samuel — 1. (1696–1772) American philosopher. A symptomatic figure rather than an independently important philosopher, Johnson was born in Connecticut and taught at Yale. He was instrumental in founding the university of Pennsylvania and Columbia… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • Johnson, Samuel — (1709–94)    Literary Figure.    Johnson is famous in the history of English literature for his Dictionary of the English Language and as the subject of James Boswell’s biography. He was a highly influential writer in his own time. He was born in …   Who’s Who in Christianity

  • Johnson, Samuel — ► (1709 84) Literato inglés, llamado Doctor Johnson. Autor del Diccionario de la lengua inglesa (1747 55) y Rasselas (1759). * * * llamado Dr. Johnson (18 sep. 1709, Lichfield, Staffordshire, Inglaterra–13 dic. 1784, Londres). Literato británico …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • JOHNSON, SAMUEL —    the great English lexicographer, born in Lichfield, the son of a bookseller; received his early education in his native town and completed it at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1728; in 1736 he married a widow named Porter, who brought him £800;… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Johnson, Samuel Curtis — ▪ 2005       American business executive (b. March 2, 1928, Racine, Wis. d. May 22, 2004, Racine), served for more than 30 years, until 2000, as head of S.C. Johnson & Son, a company founded by his great grandfather in 1886. Under his guidance… …   Universalium

  • JOHNSON, Samuel — (1709 1784)    English ESSAYIST, man of letters and defender of CHRISTIANITY against DEISM and other criticisms of his age …   Concise dictionary of Religion

  • Johnson, Samuel — 1) (1649 1703)    Political writer, sometimes called the Whig to distinguish him from his great namesake. Of humble extraction, he was ed. at St. Paul s School and Camb., and took orders. He attacked James II. in Julian the Apostate (1682), and… …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • Samuel Johnson — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnsons, grabado a partir del original por sir Joshua Reynolds Nacimiento …   Wikipedia Español

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