What does samuel johnson mean?

Definitions for samuel johnson
samuel john·son

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word samuel johnson.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. Johnson, Samuel Johnson, Dr. Johnsonnoun

    English writer and lexicographer (1709-1784)

Wikipedia

  1. Samuel Johnson

    Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 [OS 7 September] – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography calls him "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history".Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, he attended Pembroke College, Oxford until lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London and began writing for The Gentleman's Magazine. Early works include Life of Mr Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes and the play Irene. After nine years' effort, Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language appeared in 1755, and was acclaimed as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship". Later work included essays, an annotated The Plays of William Shakespeare, and the apologue The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. In 1763 he befriended James Boswell, with whom he travelled to Scotland, as Johnson described in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Near the end of his life came a massive, influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets of the 17th and 18th centuries. He was a devout Anglican, and a committed Tory. Tall and robust, he displayed gestures and tics that disconcerted some on meeting him. Boswell's Life, along with other biographies, documented Johnson's behaviour and mannerisms in such detail that they have informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome, a condition not defined or diagnosed in the 18th century. After several illnesses, he died on the evening of 13 December 1784 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In his later life Johnson became a celebrity, and following his death he was increasingly seen to have had a lasting effect on literary criticism, even being claimed to be the one truly great critic of English literature. A prevailing mode of literary theory in the 20th century drew from his views, and he had a lasting impact on biography. Johnson's Dictionary had far-reaching effects on Modern English, and was pre-eminent until the arrival of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later. James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson was selected by Johnson biographer Walter Jackson Bate as "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature".

ChatGPT

  1. samuel johnson

    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was a noted English writer, poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. He is perhaps best known for his monumental work, "A Dictionary of the English Language," published in 1755, which had a profound effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship." Johnson's literary output has made him one of the most quoted of English writers, after William Shakespeare. He is also the subject of one of the most celebrated biographies in English, James Boswell's "Life of Johnson."

Wikidata

  1. Samuel Johnson

    Samuel Johnson, often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher he moved to London, where he began to write for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage, the poems "London" and "The Vanity of Human Wishes", and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755. It had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship." This work brought Johnson popularity and success; until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary. His later works included essays, an influential annotated edition of William Shakespeare's plays, and the widely read tale Rasselas. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; Johnson described their travels in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, a collection of biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets.

Suggested Resources

  1. samuel johnson

    samuel johnson poems -- Explore a large selection of poetry work created by samuel johnson on Poetry.net

  2. samuel johnson

    Quotes by samuel johnson -- Explore a large variety of famous quotes made by samuel johnson on the Quotes.net website.

Who Was Who?

  1. Samuel Johnson

    No relation of the above. Employed the greatest press agent the world has ever seen, and was thus made famous. Also wrote.

Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers

  1. Samuel Johnson

    American author, born Salem, Massachusetts, 10 Oct. 1822. He was educated at Harvard, and became pastor of a “Free Church” at Lynn in ’53. He never attached himself to any denomination, although in some points his views were like those of the Unitarians and Universalists. About ’46 he published, in conjunction with S. Longfellow, brother of the poet, Hymns of the Spirit, Oriental Religions in relation to Universal Religion, of which the volume on India appeared in ’72, China ’77, and Persia ’84. Died Andover, 19 Feb. 1882.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of samuel johnson in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of samuel johnson in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of samuel johnson in a Sentence

  1. Fred Allen:

    During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoying big talk.

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