Samuel Johnson - Biography - The other S. Johnson

Samuel Johnson, by Sir Joshua Reynolds Sam's namesake, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), was a British writer and a major figure of his time—in fact, the later half of the 18th century is known as the Age of Johnson.

You can see this painting of Johnson in Britain's Tate Gallery.

Ideas
Johnson was a poet, biographer, travel writer, critic, essayist, lexicographer, and, more than anything, a conversationalist. His writings orbit a fascination with our tendency to let wishful thinking eclipse the lessons of everyday experience.

Johnson's full exploration of "the grass is always greener" syndrome is his 1759 tale, "The History of Rasselas." In spite of his carefree life in the Happy Valley, Prince Rasselas abandons his bucolic home because, while observation tells him home is "perpetually and unalterably cheerful," his restless mind leaves him always unsatisfied. As Johnson puts it, "happiness is never to be found, and each believes it is possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself."

Johnson is best known for his Dictionary. It took him seven years to write the book. It took the French Academy 40 scholars and 40 years to write their French dictionary. Asked about this difference, Johnson quipped:
"Sir, thus it is. This is the proportion. Let me see; 40 times 40 is 16 hundred. As three to 16 hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman."

Thackeray readers may recall that upon leaving Miss Pinkerton's school in chapter one of Vanity Fair, Becky Sharp chucks Johnson's Dictionary into the garden.

Writings

Johnson's works include:

"London" (1738)
The Life of Richard Savage (1744)
The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749)
The Rambler (1750-52)
Johnson's Dictionary (1755)
The Idler (1758-60)
Rasselas (1759)
Edition of Shakespeare (1765)
Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775)
Lives of the Poets (1779-81)
Letters
Selected writings (This 1982 Penguin paperback gives a good overview of Johnson's work)

Learn more about these books at Amazon.com by clicking an underlined title.
Back

Other Sam Johnson Sites
Learn more about the original Sam Johnson:

SamuelJohnson.com
Jack Lynch's Samuel Johnson Pages
The Johnson Society of Australia
The Johnson Society of London
Dr. Johnson's House, 17 Gough Square London
Johnson's Grave, Westiminster Abbey, London

Johnson is one of the most quoted and misquoted English writers. A few of his sayings:

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." (Commonly misattributed to Sam's other namesake, Samuel Clemens.)
"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
Writing of America: "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?"
"There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn."
Second marriages: "The triumph of hope over experience."
"More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character, by a short conversation with one of his servants, than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended with his funeral."

Quotes

Boswell
Back

Thanks to James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), little Sam's namesake has a grand reputation. Boswell's Life distinguishes Johnson as sage conversationalist, man about London, and moral arbiter. Read it for a picture of Johnson's readings and ideas in restless dialogue with his life experiences.