It’s the birthday of one of the most important intellectual and literary figures of the 18th century, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). Johnson wrote everything from essays to biography to poetry but is best known for his Dictionary of the English Language.

Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, and had lifelong health problems after contracting tuberculosis of the lymph glands (also known as “scrofula”) as a wee bairn—yet in spite of health problems he became big and strong as an adult, even kind of massive. He had an unhappy childhood, with parents who had money problems and didn’t get along. He studied at Lichfield Grammar School under a particularly brutal headmaster and eventually went on to Pembroke College, Oxford, but couldn’t afford to stay. He struggled for several years with massive laziness, depression, a big emotional breakdown, and the development of many tics that may have indicated Tourette syndrome. (No, depressed people are not lazy. It is possible to be both. Johnson was both. Don’t yell at me.) He tried teaching, hated it, and began various writing projects, including his first book, a translation from Portuguese of a Jesuit missionary expedition (A Voyage to Abyssinia, 1735). He began to establish a good literary reputation.

In 1735, Johnson married Elizabeth Porter, twenty years his senior (*gasp*). It appears to have been a true love match, though it didn’t hurt that she had money. They moved to London and Johnson worked on more and more writing projects, including the first modern magazine, The Gentleman’s Magazine. He also wrote translations, poetry, biographies, Shakespeare criticism, and more. In 1747, he began work on his dictionary, which took six assistants and eight years, and which was published on April 15, 1755. Johnson’s dictionary wasn’t the first, but it was the best of its time, with excellent definitions and quotations to illustrate usage, and Johnson was pleased that an Englishman finished his dictionary more quickly than the French Academy finished theirs. (Ha.) The University of Oxford awarded Johnson an M.A. as their way of saying, “Well done, sir.” In 1765, he also received an honorary  Doctor of Laws degree from Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1775 a Doctor of Civil Laws from Oxford. (NB: Once you’ve completed a dictionary, you’ve officially blown it at being lazy. Twenty life points to anyone out there who has written a dictionary.)

Johnson’s wife had died in 1752, but former slave Francis Barber, along with *his* wife and children, joined Johnson’s household and ultimately became Johnson’s heir. In 1762, Johnson was given a government pension, and the next year he met a young fellow named James Boswell who basically glued himself to Johnson and eventually wrote Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791), perhaps the greatest biography in the English language. In 1773, Johnson and Boswell traveled to the Hebrides, and in 1775, Johnson published A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, which is supposed to be terrific travel literature.

More happened. So much more. Writing. People. Angst. Maybe read Boswell’s book. Johnson died on December 13, 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey very near Shakespeare’s monument.

Have a bright and sunny Tuesday if at all possible and stay scrupulously honest to the data.