Editing Samuel Johnson (section)

==Legacy==
{{Toryism|expanded=people}}
{{external media|float=right|video1=[https://www.c-span.org/video/?115071-1/samuel-johnson Presentation by Walter Jackson Bate on ''Samuel Johnson: A Biography'', October 18, 1998], [[C-SPAN]]}}
[[File:Samuel Johnson Statue.jpg|200px|thumb|upright|Statue of Dr Johnson erected in 1838 opposite the house where he was born at Lichfield's Market Square. There are also statues of him in London and Uttoxeter.<ref>{{citation|doi=10.1093/nq/s11-IV.88.181 |title=Statues and memorials in the British Isles |date=1911 |last1=Page |first1=Johh T. |journal=Notes and Queries |issue=88 |pages=181–184 }}</ref>]]

Johnson was, in the words of Steven Lynn, "more than a well-known writer and scholar";<ref>{{Harvnb|Lynn|1997|p=240}}</ref> he was a celebrity, for the activities and the state of his health in his later years were constantly reported in various journals and newspapers, and when there was nothing to report, something was invented.<ref name="Lynn 1997 240–241"/> According to Bate, "Johnson loved biography," and he "changed the whole course of biography for the modern world. One by-product was the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature, Boswell's ''Life of Johnson'', and there were many other memoirs and biographies of a similar kind written on Johnson after his death."<ref name="Batexix"/> These [[List of contemporary accounts of Samuel Johnson's life|accounts of his life]] include [[Thomas Tyers]]'s ''[[A Biographical Sketch of Dr Samuel Johnson]]'' (1784);<ref>{{Harvnb|Hill|1897|p=335 (Vol. 2)}}</ref> Boswell's ''The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides'' (1785); Hester Thrale's ''[[Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson]]'', which drew on entries from her diary and other notes;<ref>{{Harvnb|Bloom|1998|p=75}}</ref> John Hawkins's ''[[Life of Samuel Johnson (Hawkins book)|Life of Samuel Johnson]]'', the first full-length biography of Johnson;<ref>{{Harvnb|Davis|1961|p=vii}}</ref> and, in 1792, Arthur Murphy's ''[[An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson]]'', which replaced Hawkins's biography as the introduction to a collection of Johnson's ''Works''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hill|1897|p=355}}</ref> Another important source was Fanny Burney, who described Johnson as "the acknowledged Head of Literature in this kingdom" and kept a diary containing details missing from other biographies.<ref>{{Harvnb|Clarke|2000|pp=4–5}}</ref> Above all, Boswell's portrayal of Johnson is the work best known to general readers. Although critics like Donald Greene argue about its status as a true biography, the work became successful as Boswell and his friends promoted it at the expense of the many other works on Johnson's life.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 7}}</ref>

In criticism, Johnson had a lasting influence, although not everyone viewed him favourably. Some, like Macaulay, regarded Johnson as an [[Savant syndrome|idiot savant]] who produced some respectable works, and others, like the [[Romantic poetry|Romantic poets]], were completely opposed to Johnson's views on poetry and literature, especially with regard to Milton.<ref name="Lynn p. 245">{{Harvnb|Lynn|1997|p=245}}</ref> However, some of their contemporaries disagreed: [[Stendhal]]'s ''Racine et Shakespeare'' is based in part on Johnson's views of Shakespeare,<ref name="Greene p. 142"/> and Johnson influenced [[Jane Austen]]'s writing style and philosophy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Grundy|1997|pp=199–200}}</ref> Later, Johnson's works came into favour, and [[Matthew Arnold]], in his ''Six Chief Lives from Johnson's "Lives of the Poets"'', considered the ''Lives'' of Milton, Dryden, Pope, [[Joseph Addison|Addison]], Swift, and Gray as "points which stand as so many natural centres, and by returning to which we can always find our way again".<ref>{{Harvnb|Arnold|1972|p=351}}</ref>

More than a century after his death, literary critics such as [[George Birkbeck Norman Hill|G. Birkbeck Hill]] and [[T. S. Eliot]] came to regard Johnson as a serious critic. They began to study Johnson's works with an increasing focus on the critical analysis found in his edition of Shakespeare and ''Lives of the Poets''.<ref name="Lynn p. 245"/> [[Yvor Winters]] claimed that "A great critic is the rarest of all literary geniuses; perhaps the only critic in English who deserves that epithet is Samuel Johnson".<ref name="Winters p. 240"/> [[F. R. Leavis]] agreed and, on Johnson's criticism, said, "When we read him we know, beyond question, that we have here a powerful and distinguished mind operating at first hand upon literature. This, we can say with emphatic conviction, really ''is'' criticism".<ref>{{Harvnb|Wilson|1950|p=244}}</ref> [[Edmund Wilson]] claimed that "The ''Lives of the Poets'' and the prefaces and commentary on Shakespeare are among the most brilliant and the most acute documents in the whole range of English criticism".<ref name="Winters p. 240"/>

The critic [[Harold Bloom]] placed Johnson's work firmly within the [[Western canon]], describing him as "unmatched by any critic in any nation before or after him&nbsp;... Bate in the finest insight on Johnson I know, emphasised that no other writer is so obsessed by the realisation that the mind is an ''activity'', one that will turn to destructiveness of the self or of others unless it is directed to labour."<ref>{{Harvnb|Bloom|1995|pp=183, 200}}</ref> Johnson's philosophical insistence that the language within literature must be examined became a prevailing mode of [[literary theory]] during the mid-20th century.<ref name="Greene 1989 139"/>

Half of Johnson's surviving correspondence, together with some of his manuscripts, editions of his books, paintings and other items associated with him are in the Donald and [[Mary Eccles, Viscountess Eccles|Mary Hyde]] Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson, housed at [[Houghton Library]] at [[Harvard University]] since 2003. The collection includes drafts of his ''Plan for a Dictionary'', documents associated with Hester Thrale Piozzi and James Boswell (including corrected proofs of his ''Life of Johnson'') and a teapot owned by Johnson.<ref>{{citation|url=http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/hyde.cfm|title=The Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson and Early Modern Books and Manuscripts|publisher=Harvard College Library|access-date=10 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091224190409/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/hyde.cfm|archive-date=24 December 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

There are many societies formed around and dedicated to the study and enjoyment of Samuel Johnson's life and works. On the bicentennial of Johnson's death in 1984, Oxford University held a week-long conference featuring 50 papers, and the [[Arts Council of Great Britain]] held an exhibit of "Johnsonian portraits and other memorabilia". The London ''[[The Times|Times]]'' and ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' produced parodies of Johnson's style for the occasion.<ref>{{Harvnb|Greene|1989|pp=174–175}}</ref> In 1999, the [[BBC Four]] television channel started the [[Samuel Johnson Prize]], an award for non-fiction.<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/books/features/samueljohnson/|title=Samuel Johnson Prize 2008|publisher=BBC|access-date=25 August 2008|archive-date=18 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080718215906/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/books/features/samueljohnson/|url-status=live}}</ref> A [[Royal Society of Arts]] [[blue plaque]], unveiled in 1876, marks Johnson's Gough Square house.<ref name="EngHet">{{citation|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/johnson-dr-samuel-1709-1784|title=Johnson, Dr Samuel (1709–1784)|publisher=English Heritage|access-date=23 October 2012|archive-date=29 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729080429/http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/johnson-dr-samuel-1709-1784|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2009, Johnson was among the ten people selected by the [[Royal Mail]] for their [[Great Britain commemorative stamps 2000–2009|"Eminent Britons" commemorative postage stamp]] issue.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Royal Mail celebrate eminent Britons |url=https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/the-royal-mail-celebrate-eminent-britons-xxdbrr6jzjt |date=8 October 2009 |access-date=30 September 2022 |work=[[The Times]] |archive-date=2 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002104305/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-royal-mail-celebrate-eminent-britons-xxdbrr6jzjt |url-status=live }}</ref> On 18 September 2017 Google commemorated Johnson's 308th birthday with a [[Google Doodle]].<ref>{{citation|url=https://doodles.google/doodle/samuel-johnsons-308th-birthday/ |title=Samuel Johnson's 308th Birthday |date=18 September 2017 |access-date=18 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | last=Lewis | first=Rachel | title=Today's Google Doodle Commemorates Dictionary Creator Samuel Johnson | magazine=Time | date=18 September 2017 | url=https://time.com/4945974/google-doodle-samuel-johnson-dictionary/ | access-date=19 November 2022}}</ref> The date of his death, 13 December, is [[Commemoration (Anglicanism)|commemorated]] in the [[Church of England]]'s [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|Calendar of Saints]].<ref>{{citation|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=8 April 2021|website=The Church of England|archive-date=9 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309204842/https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|url-status=live}}</ref> There is a memorial to him at [[St Paul's Cathedral]] in London.<ref>[[William Sinclair (Archdeacon of London)|Sinclair, W.]] (1909). ''Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral''. Chapman & Hall, Ltd. p. 486.</ref>