I grew up understanding the children of the community are the children of the community.   ~ Kamala Harris

Today, most attractive reader, is Samuel Johnson’s birthday, born September 18, 1709.  If you don’t immediately recognize the name, I will include you in my nightly prayers.  But, also understanding not everyone majored in English, here’s a very brief breakdown of this badass.

Johnson’s most well-known work, his magnum opus, was the “Dictionary of the English Language.”  Yep…he compiled the first truly comprehensive English dictionary.  And he did it with style.  Published in 1755, the Dictionary was compiled in nine years, which is pretty much warp speed in writer years.

I actually got significantly drunk in a bar in London where Johnson would drink at night whilst working on his dictionary almost 300 years prior.  I’m pretty sure he did some drinking as he was working…Johnson knew his work was going to be literally definitive for a long time, and knew the power that gave him, and took full advantage of his position to imbue his definitions with his own completely subjective opinions.  The weak are sometimes offended by this, but it’s important to remember he was always rather self-deprecating: he described a lexicographer as “a harmless drudge.”  In another instance, a lady exclaimed she couldn’t believe he had defined “oats” as food for horses and Scotsmen, to which Johnson retorted, “Yes, madam; and where else will you see such horses, and such men?”

Beyond his dictionary, Johnson was a prolific writer, essayist, and a poet.  His works include “The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets” and “Rasselas,” a philosophical novella that explored things like happiness and purpose.  Because there were no phones or internet in the 18th century…the only entertainment was pondering existential crises.

We can’t talk about Samuel Johnson without mentioning James Boswell  Boswell was Johnson’s wingman.  Boswell was the Watson to Johnson’s Holmes, chronicling his life with an enthusiasm typically reserved for Instagram influencers documenting bottomless mimosa brunch.  Boswell was the ultimate biographer, and if you’re going to do any reading on or study of Johnson, you must start with Boswell’s biography.

Samuel Johnson was considered eccentric in his day.  He wore odd, mismatched clothes and was notorious for his tardiness.  And he talked to himself in public.  But who hasn’t?

Happy 315th Uncle Samuel!

N.P.: “Rooster” – Howling Giant