Samuel Johnson: Man of Words

Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson, though he was not a medical doctor) was one of the shining lights of eighteenth century English literature. He wrote poetry, stories, plays and essays that were well received by the public of his day. In our day his fame rests securely on his nine-year-long work to produce the first comprehensive and structured English dictionary, which remained unrivalled until the Oxford English dictionary appeared in 1928.

Many of his sayings have entered regular usage, such as ‘When a man is tired of London he is tired of life.’ With a whole dictionary at his disposal he was certainly not short of words, as you will find for yourself in this book, where many of his best quotations may be found.