This Title contain collection of 2 books
1. A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland
2. The Preface to Shakespeare
About the author
Samuel Johnson
Moralist, essayist, and lexicographer, son of a bookseller at Lichfield, received his early education at his native town, and went in 1728 to Oxford, but had, owing to poverty, to leave without taking a degree. For a short time he was usher in a school at Market Bosworth, but found the position so irksome that he threw it up, and gained a meagre livelihood by working for a publisher in Birmingham. In 1735, being then 26, he married Mrs. Porter, a widow of over 40, who brought him £800, and to whom he was sincerely attached. He started an academy at Ediol, near Lichfield, which, however, had no success, only three boys, one of whom was David Garrick, attending it. Accordingly, this venture was given up, and Johnson in 1737 went to London accompanied by Garrick. Here he had a hard struggle with poverty, humiliation, and every kind of evil, always, however, quitting himself like the true man he was. He contributed to the Gentleman’s Magazine, furnishing the parliamentary debates in very free and generally much improved form, under the title of “Debates of the Senate of Lilliput.” In 1738 appeared London, a satire imitated from Juvenal which, published anonymously, attracted immediate attention, and the notice of Pope. His next work was the life of his unfortunate friend Savage [1744]; and in 1747 he began his great English Dictionary. Another satire, The Vanity of Human Wishes, appeared in 1749, and in the same year Irene, a tragedy. His next venture was the starting of the Rambler, a paper somewhat on the lines of the Spectator; but, sententious and grave, it had none of the lightness and grace of its model, and likewise lacked its popularity. It was almost solely the work of Johnson himself, and was carried on twice a week for two years. In 1752 his wife, “his dear Tetty” died, and was sincerely mourned; and in 1755 his Dictionary appeared. The patronage of Lord Chesterfield, which he had vainly sought, was then offered, but proudly rejected in a letter which has become a classic. The work made him famous, and Oxford conferred upon him the degree of M.A. He had become the friend of Reynolds and Goldsmith; Burke and others were soon added.
