Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Samuel Johnson overcame significant physical and financial hardships to become one of the most prominent figures of eighteenth-century English literature. After leaving Pembroke College, Oxford, due to a lack of funds, he worked briefly as a teacher before moving to London to pursue a career as a writer. He began contributing to The Gentleman's Magazine and published early works such as the poem London (1738) and the biography Life of Mr Richard Savage (1744).
Johnson's reputation was permanently secured with the publication of A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. Taking nine years to complete, this monumental 42,733-entry work was hailed as a masterpiece of scholarship and remained the preeminent English dictionary for over a century. During this highly productive period, he also wrote the philosophical fable The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759) and edited an influential edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare (1765).
In his later years, Johnson befriended James Boswell, whose subsequent biography of Johnson became a masterpiece of the genre. Johnson's final major achievement was the multi-volume Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779–1781), which combined biography and critical analysis of fifty-two poets. Despite suffering from lifelong physical ailments, including symptoms now recognized as Tourette syndrome, Johnson remained a towering intellectual figure until his death in 1784. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, remembered as a pioneering critic, moralist, and lexicographer.
