The World Displayed

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was an English poet, essayist, critic, journalist, lexicographer, and conversationalist, regarded as one of the outstanding figures of 18th-century life and letters.  In addition to his Dictionary and the philosophical romance of THE PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA (1759, later known as RASSELAS), Johnson published essays in The Adventurer (1752-54) and The Idler (1758-60). He wrote a number of political articles, biographies of Sir Thomas Browne and Roger Ascham, and contributed to the Universal Chronicle.