Description
A unique one-volume selection of Samuel Johnson’s writings on spiritual and moral topics provides an unusually inspiring portrait of the man and his thought.
Most readers know Dr. Johnson (1709—1784) as the formidable compiler of his famous Dictionary and as the witty conversationalist portrayed in Boswell’s Life. By contrast, this book–which draws on little-known unsigned sermons he wrote for hire for clergy friends, his private prayers and devotions, essays, poems, diaries, letters, and even key definitions from the Dictionary–offers a rare opportunity to discover Johnson’s rich insight and consoling spirituality gathered in one place. Boswell observed that "He was a sincere and zealous ChristianÉ. He was steady and inflexible in maintaining the obligations of religion and morality; both from a regard for the order of society, and from a veneration for the Great Source of all order." This Vintage Spiritual Classics Original opens a window on the moral universe of the leading English writer of the eighteenth century.
About the Author
People note British writer and lexicographerSamuel Johnson, known as "Doctor Johnson," for hisDictionary of the English Language(1755), forLives of the Poets(1781), and for his series of essays, published under the titlesThe Rambler(1752) andThe Idler(1758).Samuel Johnson used the first consistentUniversal Etymological English Dictionary, first published in 1721, of British lexicographerNathan Baileyas a reference.Beginning as a journalist on Grub street, this English author made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, and editor. People described Johnson as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history."James Boswellsubjected him toLife of Samuel Johnson, one of the most celebrated biographies in English. This biography alongside other biographies, documented behavior and mannerisms of Johnson in such detail that they informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS), a condition unknown to 18th-century physicians. He presented a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tics confused some persons on their first encounters.Johnson attended Pembroke college, Oxford for a year before his lack of funds compelled him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write essays forThe Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biographyThe Life of Richard Savageand the poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes." Christian morality permeated works of Johnson, a devout and compassionate man. He, a conservative Anglican, nevertheless respected persons of other denominations that demonstrated a commitment to teachings of Christ.After nine years of work, people in 1755 published his preeminentDictionary of the English Language, bringing him popularity and success until the completion of theOxford English Dictionaryin 1905, a century and a half later. In the following years, he published essays, an influential annotated edition of plays of William Shakespeare, and the well-read novelRasselas. In 1763, he befriendedJames Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland;A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, travel narrative of Johnson, described the journey. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influentialLives of the Most Eminent English Poets, which includes biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets.After a series of illnesses, Johnson died on the evening; people buried his body in Westminster abbey. In the years following death, people began to recognize a lasting effect of Samuel Johnson on literary criticism even as the only great critic of English literature.
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