The book that influenced all others
Samuel Johnson, born 300 years ago this week, wrote one of the most important books in the English language. So what made his dictionary so special?
Dictionaries", said Samuel Johnson, "are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true."
It may not have achieved perfection, but Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, is generally regarded as one of the most important works of scholarship in the English language.