Samuel Johnson

Introduction
Early life
The Gentleman’s Magazine and early publications
Maturity and recognition
- The Vanity of Human Wishes
- The theatre
- From The Rambler to The Adventurer
- The Dictionary
- The Literary Magazine
- The Idler
- Rasselas
- Friendships and household
- The edition of Shakespeare
- Dr. Johnson
- Political pamphlets
- Journey to the Hebrides
- The Lives of the Poets
Last years
Achievement and reputation

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Painting of Samuel Johnson showing Johnson seated at a desk with a quill in hand and papers before him, wearing a brown coat and white wig.

Lichfield, Staffordshire, England: birthplace of Samuel Johnson

Dictionary page showing Samuel Johnson's 1755 definition of oats, including the remark that in England oats are fed to horses but in Scotland they support the people, with literary quotations.

Learn about the history of the dictionary, from Dr. Samuel Johnson's dictionary of the English language to the Oxford English Dictionary

At a Glance

Samuel Johnson summary

Quizzes

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) The Star Child and the planet Jupiter from the film's final segment "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" directed by Stanley Kubrick. Science fiction

From Moby-Dick to Space Odysseys

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Circa 1963 publicity photo of Alfred Hitchcock director of The Birds (1963).

Who Said It? Essential Writers, Artists, and Scientists

Related Questions

How did James Boswell preserve Samuel Johnson’s conversations?
How did Samuel Johnson contribute to The Gentleman’s Magazine?
How did Samuel Johnson create the parliamentary debates published in The Gentleman’s Magazine?
How did Samuel Johnson define the word patron in his dictionary?
How did Samuel Johnson describe the responsibilities of a biographer?
How did Samuel Johnson judge Richard Savage’s talents and behavior?
How did Samuel Johnson use literary quotations in A Dictionary of the English Language?
How did Samuel Johnson’s definition of internecine help change the word’s meaning?
How many assistants helped Samuel Johnson copy quotations for A Dictionary of the English Language?
How many words did Samuel Johnson include in A Dictionary of the English Language?
How much older was Elizabeth Porter than Samuel Johnson?
How old were James Boswell and Samuel Johnson when they met?
What book did Samuel Johnson translate before moving to London?
What did Samuel Johnson’s early political satires say about Robert Walpole’s government?
What ideas about human life are explored in Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas?
What observations did Samuel Johnson include in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland?
What physical illnesses and disabilities affected Samuel Johnson during childhood?
What sources did James Boswell use to write The Life of Samuel Johnson?
What themes does Samuel Johnson explore in The Vanity of Human Wishes?
What topics did Samuel Johnson discuss in The Rambler essays?
What was Samuel Johnson’s first published work?
When and where was Samuel Johnson born?
When did James Boswell first meet Samuel Johnson?
When did Samuel Johnson die?
When did Samuel Johnson sign the contract to create A Dictionary of the English Language?
When was A Dictionary of the English Language published?
When was The Life of Samuel Johnson published?
Which Roman poet inspired Samuel Johnson’s poem London?
Which Roman satire inspired The Vanity of Human Wishes?
Which book by William Law influenced Samuel Johnson’s religious life at Oxford?
Which earlier dictionary writer did Samuel Johnson use as a resource while compiling his dictionary?
Which famous writers and thinkers belonged to Samuel Johnson’s Club?
Which future actor was a student at Samuel Johnson’s school in Edial?
Which school did Samuel Johnson attend in Lichfield?
Who founded The Club with Samuel Johnson in 1764?
Who supported Samuel Johnson’s dictionary project financially?
Who was Hester Thrale and why was she important to Samuel Johnson?
Who were Samuel Johnson’s parents?
Whom did Samuel Johnson marry in 1735?
Why did Samuel Johnson believe that a dictionary could not permanently fix the English language?
Why did Samuel Johnson exclude some authors from the quotations in his dictionary?
Why did Samuel Johnson leave Pembroke College at Oxford?
Why did Samuel Johnson leave his teaching position at Market Bosworth?
Why did Samuel Johnson think details of daily life were important in biographies?
Why did Samuel Johnson write A Compleat Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage?
Why did Samuel Johnson write An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage?
Why is James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson considered an important biography?
Why was Samuel Johnson taken to London to be touched by Queen Anne?
Why were Samuel Johnson’s parliamentary debates called Debates in the Senate of Magna Lilliputia?
Who was Mario Vargas Llosa?
What is Mario Vargas Llosa’s most famous book?
When did Mario Vargas Llosa win the Nobel Prize?
Did Mario Vargas Llosa marry his cousin?
Who was Henry James?
Where did Henry James grow up?
When did Henry James become a writer?
How did Henry James influence the development of the novel?
What are some of Henry James’s most famous works?
How did Henry James die?

Literature Poetry Poets A-K

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External Websites

Harvard College Library - Houghton Library - The Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson
Amercian Society of Authors and Writers - Samuel Johnson
Poetry Foundation - Biography of Samuel Johnson
The Ohio State University Pressbooks - British Literature to 1800 - Samuel Johnson (1709-84): Genius and Disability
The Victorian Web - Samuel Johnson
Bridgewater State University - Virtual Commons - The Great Samuel Johnson and His Opposition to Literary Liars (PDF)
Humanities LibreTexts - Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
LSU Scholarly Repository - Samuel Johnson on Education and the English Class Structure (PDF)
ABC listen - Ockham's Razor - Dr Johnson: the unexpected scientist
Brown University - The Early Life of Samuel Johnson
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Samuel Johnson: his ills, his pills and his physician friends

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Samuel Johnson - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Samuel Johnson

English author

Also known as: Dr. Johnson

Written by

Robert Folkenflik

Professor of English, University of California, Irvine. Author of Samuel Johnson, Biographer.

Robert Folkenflik

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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Last updated

Oct. 23, 2026 •History

Samuel Johnson (born September 18, 1709, Lichfield, Staffordshire, England—died December 13, 1784, London) was an English critic, biographer, essayist, poet, and lexicographer, regarded as one of the greatest figures of 18th-century life and letters. Johnson once characterized literary biographies as “mournful narratives,” and he believed that he lived “a life radically wretched.” Yet his career can be seen as a literary success story of the sickly boy from the Midlands who by talent, tenacity, and...

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