The Literary Oracle

It has been said of Dr. Samuel Johnson, that "he sat in his easy-chair, and was for twenty years the literary oracle of the world."

He was a famous English writer, born in Lichfield, 1709.

In 1755 he completed his dictionary, after eight years of solid labor upon it.

It was the first large dictionary of the English language; and the research upon all subjects which this one work required, entitled him to be looked upon as an oracle.

Besides his dictionary, he published many other works. His "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia," a story, is said to have been written in the evenings of a single week, to defray the expenses of his mother's funeral.

In 1762 he emerged from the poverty which had surrounded and hampered him, as it did most of the literary men in his time; Lord Bute having conferred upon him a pension of three hundred pounds a year.

His "Lives of the Poets" was his last literary work of importance. He died Dec. 13, 1784, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.