Samuel Johnson: A Personal History: A Personal History

by Henry Hitchings (Foreword), Christopher Hibbert

Christopher Hibbert draws on every known contemporary source to provide a minutely detailed look at the fascinating writer Samuel Johnson. Using facts and anecdotes, Hibbert delivers intimate glimpses into Johnson's time as a schoolboy, his eccentricities as an undergraduate at Oxford, his struggle as a poor writer in London, and his slow rise to the legendary figure with a court of admirers and a steady stream of visitors. Hibbert combines personal stories with an examination Johnson's writing, offering a compelling and readable account.

Genres: Biography, History

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Henry Hitchings is the author of The Language Wars, The Secret Life of Words, Who’s Afraid of Jane Austen?, and Defining the World. He has contributed to many newspapers and magazines and is the theater critic for the London Evening Standard.

Reviews

[Dave Appleby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samuel Johnson left Pembroke College without a degree (much later in life he received an honorary LLD and is therefore known as Doctor Johnson) and did hack-work in Fleet Street in the 1740s and 1750s. He is most remembered for compiling an early English dictionary and for the biography written by Boswell. He was the centre of the coffee-house culture of the time and was often to be found at a coffee house or a tavern engaged in ferocious argumentation with his friends, who included the actor David Garrick (a friend from Lichfield whom Johnson had once taught) and the novelist and playwright Oliver Goldsmith.

The biography shows Johnson to have been a domineering boor. He was arrogant and often insulted those who disagreed with him. He was greedy, eating up to sixteen peaches a day and drinking up to twenty-five cups of tea at a sitting. He frequently sponged off his friends; he rarely showed gratitude and seems to have taken the attitude that they were lucky to pay for the pleasure of his company. Nevertheless, they seemed to adore him for his eloquence and (sometimes rather heavy-handed) wit; he was a conversational genius (but at the same time a prima donna).

He does seem to have suffered from something that might be akin to bipolar syndrome and might have similarities with Tourettes (he constantly fidgeted although he seems to have been in control of his language).

This a well-written (but not page-turning) warts-and-all portrait of a rather unpleasant man.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good biography with well-chosen quotes.