Collection: Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (born 7 September??/18 September 1709 in Lichfield, died 13 December 1784 in London) – British writer and lexicographer, author of A Dictionary of the English Language (1755). A literary circle was formed around Johnson, which included the famous painter Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke and actor David Garrick. In 1763 Johnson met James Boswell, who became his close friend and later biographer (he published Johnson's biography in 1791; Polish edition in 1962).

Plagued by a number of illnesses, including asthma, arthritis and possibly cancer, Samuel Johnson died at the age of 75 from a stroke. He was buried in London's Westminster Abbey on December 20, 1784.

Johnson's other works also include a complete study and preface to the works of William Shakespeare (1765), political tracts, including one criticizing the American Revolution from a staunchly conservative position ("is it not strange that the greatest howls for freedom come from the throats of slave owners?"), notes from a journey to Scotland published in 1775 in company with Boswell, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, a ten-volume work from 1781 , The Lives of the English Poets – a collection of biographies of British poets.