SAMUEL JOHNSON AUTHOR OF THE ENGLISH DICTIONARYHIS EARLY LIFESamuel Johnson,was born with doubts surrounding his health on 18 September 1709, in the family home above his fathers bookshop in Lichfield,Staffordshire.
His health improved,but still at an early age,he developed the tics and mannerisms,which would bedevil him for the rest of his life.By the way his contemporaries have described him,it would appear that he was suffering from the condition calledTourette Syndrome.Having spent a year at Pembroke College,Oxford until financial difficulties forced him to leave,he tried unsuccesfully to obtain several teaching posts before eventually moving to London.Poverty,he often complained,was being in a situation he had endured from early childhood and questioned the likelihood of whether he would ever have the means from which he could extricate himself. The position he found himself in,was due in part to the fact he had not obtained his Degree at Oxford and was therefore, deemed not qualified,for the teaching profession.In addition to this, Tourette Syndrome very likely made public occupations,like schoolmaster all but impossible for him to hold,because it was said he had such a way of distorting his face,that it was thought it may have affected his pupils.
Of her three children, only her daughter Lucy had accepted Samuel Johnson and it was much later before her son Joseph was to accept him.Her other son Jervis had completely severed relations with her. When in 1737,he eventually decided to move to London,both penniless and with not much more hope,he was accompanied by David Garrick,a former pupil who would be his lifelong friend and become the greatest actor of his age. Taking up lodgings in Greenwich,he proceeded to finish his first major work" Irene",the historical tragedy he had begun in Lichfield. It was to be another twelve years however in 1749,before Garrick carried out the promise he had made to Johnson that he would produce it,changing the title in the process to Mahomet and Irene.The show ran for nine nights and after all expenses were deducted,Johnson was paid three hundred pounds. After bringing his wife to London in October 1737,he was to find employment with the publisher and editor,Edward Cave as a writer for "The Gentleman's Magazine".He found work with other Publisher's also, making his combined assignments during this period "almost unparalleled in range and variety" and "so numerous,so varied and scattered"that he found it impossible to make a complete list. May the following year,was to see his first major work published.This was the poem "London",which was published anonymously (Johnson thinking it would not bring him any merit as a poet),leading Alexander Pope to claim that the author would soon be brought to light and become well known. This did not happen until 15 years later in 1752.
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In 1734,a close friend,Harry Porter died,leaving a wife Elizabeth (Tetty) and three children.Some time had passed,when Samuel Johnson who was twenty years her junior started courting her.The following year they were married,much against the wishes of her family.
