Timeline

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary Timeline

1737

SJ leaves Lichfield for London with David Garrick

1738

SJ becomes a regular contributor to the Gentleman’s Magazine

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SJ’s first major poem, London, is published anonymously

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1740

James Boswell is born

Samuel Richardson publishes Pamela

1741

SJ begins publishing his version of the debates in Parliament in the Gentleman’s Magazine

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1742

SJ and Thomas Osborne work on a catalog of the Harleian Library

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1744

SJ publishes The Life of Richard Savage

Alexander Pope, one of the most quoted authors in the Dictionary, dies

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1745

SJ publishes Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, a proposal for a complete edition of Shakespeare’s plays, but when another publisher claims the copyright the idea is abandoned

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Jonathan Swift, one of the most quoted authors in the Dictionary, dies

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1746

SJ submits his “Short Scheme for Compiling a New Dictionary of the English Language”

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SJ signs the contract for his Dictionary, for which he will receive 1,500 guineas (£1,575)

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A group of booksellers approach SJ and encourage him to write a proposal for a dictionary

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SJ moves to 17 Gough Square, London, and uses its garret as a workshop

1747

SJ publishes A Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language, a revised version of his “Short Scheme,” dedicated to Lord Chesterfield

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1749

SJ’s best-known poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes, is the first work to be published under his name

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SJ’s tragedy, Irene, is performed at Drury Lane; it runs nine nights

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Benjamin Martin publishes Lingua Britannica Reformata; or, A New English Dictionary, borrowing from Bailey’s Universal Dictionary and apparently incorporating ideas from SJ’s Plan of a Dictionary

1750

SJ publishes the first number of The Rambler

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