Samuel Johnson

Modern scholarship has shown that he seldom acted as a prescriptive lexicographer, but it has not been able to airbrush out other facts—that he included derisive comments on vulgar, slangy, and novel locutions, or that he resolved to include illustrative quotes only from writers whose standing gave them special linguistic authority. --Pat Rogers, Cheerfulness breaks in, The New Criterion, June 2009, review of Samuel Johnson: The Struggle, by Jeffrey Meyers, and Samuel Johnson: A Biography, by Peter Martin


His Dictionary of the English Language (1755) marked a revolution in English letters by being descriptive rather than prescriptive: In other words, he gave up on the project of creating a dictionary that would purify the unruly language by fixing meanings and pronunciations (as the Académie Francaise had recently attempted across the Channel) in favor of simply describing the state of English as it was spoken at that time and had been in the past. His philosophy and achievement cleared the path for the Oxford English Dictionary begun a century later. --Brooke Allen, First Man of Letters, Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2009, review of Samuel Johnson: A Biography, by Peter Martin, and Samuel Johnson: The Struggle, by Jeffrey Meyers (via Arts & Letters Daily)

... Johnson’s Rasselas (1759), an “Oriental tale” whose poly­syllabic pomposity disappointed the young Jane Eyre, is the worst place for readers unacquainted with Johnson to start. His best work was topical, collaborative, and either journalistic (especially the twice-weekly essay-periodicals like The Rambler, which he turned out as regularly as any blogger) or editorial (whether in the form of compilations, abridgments, translations or even a library catalog). --Leah Price, Lives of Johnson, The New York Times, January 30, 2009, review of Samuel Johnson: A Biography, by Peter Martin, and Samuel Johnson: The Struggle, by Jeffrey Meyers

His definition of essay certainly does not apply to his own efforts in that direction: “A loose sally of the mind; an irregular indigested piece; not a regular and orderly composition.” It is as though he had foreseen the blogosphere two centuries ahead of its time. --Richard John Neuhaus, While We’re At It, First Things, January 2009

What Makes Doctor Johnson Great? Oh, to be in England column by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal, Autumn 2006