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Article: Johnson, Samuel (1709–1784)
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- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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JOHNSON, SAMUEL (1709
–
1784)
JOHNSON, SAMUEL
(1709
–
1784), English writer, lexicographer, and critic. Known as "Dr. Johnson," Samuel Johnson was one of the most complex and important figures of eighteenth-century culture. Renowned particularly for his personality, his contribution to eighteenth-century writing is important both for his scholarly knowledge and for his insight into humanity in its moral and social complexity.
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
The son of Michael Johnson, a bookseller with intellectual ambitions in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Samuel Johnson was born in 1709. When he was three, he was taken to London to be touched by Queen Anne to cure his scrofula, ...