Our Debt to Dr Johnson
On the anniversary of the London writer’s birth, Peter Martin celebrates the legacy of a man admired for his insight and humanity, qualities forged in the darker and less well analysed episodes of his life.
Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is, after Shakespeare, the most frequently quoted figure in England's literary history. It seems as if scarcely a day passes without his being cited in travel brochures, London guidebooks, sports articles, philosophical tracts, sermons, newspaper reports and advertisements. A leading British prize for non-fiction bears Johnson's name. The 2005 50p coin displays his image as the author of the first comprehensive dictionary of English (1755) and in August 2007 he was the target of a hammer attack at the National Portrait Gallery when a man, apparently furious over the plight of the English language and somehow blaming Johnson for it, smashed through the glass and seriously damaged the canvas of Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of him, known as 'Dictionary Johnson'.
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