Johnson, Samuel

Early Life

Johnson was born in Litchfield, England, in 1709 and came from a middle-class background. His father owned a bookstore, and Johnson's home was a highly literate household that had fallen on hard times. Johnson acquired a severe case of scrofula as a child, which left him scarred for life and demonstrating traits of depression. More visibly and personally distressing to the young Johnson was that he involuntarily made movements, gesticulations, and loud verbal tics that made some contemporaries think him “an idiot” or deranged. Twentieth-century scholars are relatively sure that these traits are manifestations of Tourette syndrome. However, this seemingly obvious diagnosis (from a modern point of view) was not made until 200 years after his death and was no help to Johnson in his lifetime. Consequently Johnson was often a figure of fun to children and street people as he traversed London on his many rambles.

Although Johnson's condition was disconcerting to those who met him, his powers of the mind and conversational skills were such that such prejudices were quickly banished. Though a fine student, lack of funds forced him to quit Pembroke College, at Oxford University, after only one year. After a failed stint as a teacher (he later admitted he had no facility for teaching) he became a tutor and tried his hand at writing.

In 1735 he married Elizabeth “Tetty” Potter, a wealthy widow who was over 20 years his senior. The marriage was not popular with her family, and the couple eventually lived apart for much of their relationship. His wife is alleged to have sunk into opiod addiction and alcoholism and took to her bed. Nonetheless, her early death in 1752 led Johnson to a sense of guilt and sadness, and he never remarried. In 1737 he moved to London, where he wrote biographies of famous literary figures, essays, and several famous poems, one memorializing his beloved London. He famously said that “if one tires of London, one tires of life.”

Fame

In 1746, a publisher and a group of literary figures petitioned Johnson to write an authoritative [Page 562]dictionary. This task would take almost a decade, but it gained him fame and some economic benefits. After publishing his dictionary in 1755, he wrote hundreds of essays and a celebrated annotated collection of works by William Shakespeare. By the mid-1760s he was a celebrity, with London newspapers following his coming and goings and speculating on his next move. He became a much-desired dinner guest because of his fame, brilliant conversation, and pithy quotes. Although his literary output is impressive, he was famous in his own time for not enjoying writing, preferring to eat, drink, and converse with his intimates. He especially enjoyed the company of attractive women but was atypical among male contemporaries, as he was famously ethical and puritanical in his relations with them.

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