The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson is considered to be one of the founding fathers of English literature and language. He is often referred to as Dr Johnson and was a revered poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer.  His greatest contribution was, arguably, his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) which was considered the pre-eminent British dictionary until the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later.

His other works include a greatly admired and influential annotated edition of William Shakespeare’s plays and the hugely important Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, a collection of biographies of 17^th and 18^th century poets.

Samuel Johnson was born on 18^th September 1709 in Staffordshire, England, to Michael Johnson, a bookseller, and his wife, Sarah Ford. He was educated at Lichfield Grammar School and King Edward VI Grammar School at Stourbridge.  His family experienced financial problems and the young Johnson spent a lot of time working in his father’s bookshop where he read and built his literary knowledge. When a cousin died they left enough money for Johnson to attend college.

He attended Pembroke College, Oxford University for thirteen months before his funds run out and he left without a degree. However, he was awarded a Master of Arts by Pembroke College following the publication of his dictionary in 1755 and received honorary degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University.

Samuel Johnson died on 13 December 1784 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. At the time of his death he was regarded as the greatest of all English literary critics and one of the best