Samuel Johnson wrote, "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford"
Samuel Johnson was a great writer & intellectual. The founder of modern biography.
His essays reflect a deep interest in life, focussing on how men and women should behave towards each other. As a critic and a scholar, his work on Shakespeare and other writers has contributed to our understanding of their works and their lives.
Johnson’s political journalism reflects his belief that moral values cannot be disassociated from political actions. His travel book on Scotland, "A Journey to the Western Isles" is a compassionate and informative account of the country after the Jacobite rebellions and their aftermath. His poetry covers a wide range of moods, from philosophical reflections to light hearted banter and parody. His most famous book, "A Dictionary of the English Language" gives a profound insight into the language of his day and was the basis for later English dictionaries.
To many people, Johnson’s personality is based on the biographies and memoirs of close friends like Boswell and Hester Thrale. Through their work we feel we know Johnson as well as we know our friends, with all their oddities, their irritating features, their charms.
Johnson, a very human of English writers, overcome mental and physical problems. Through his wisdom, his courage, his humour, he has become a secular saint for the millions of people throughout the English-speaking world who read his work and that of his biographers. Johnson was by now the leader of the London literary world, and a friend of notable artists and writers such as Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith and David Garrick. Another important friendship for Johnson was with Henry Thrale, a wealthy brewer and member of parliament, and his wife Hester. Johnson became part of their family, treating their London houses as second homes.
Johnson died on 13 December 1784 and is buried at Westminster Abbey. |
