The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol 18; Johnson on the English Language

This volume collects the most important statements on the English language by Samuel Johnson, one of its greatest expositors and speakers. The book includes scholarly, fully annotated editions of Johnson's main writings on the history, structure, and cultural importance of the English language as well as his reflections on lexicography. These texts represent Johnson's thinking as he undertook and completed the major work of his life, the colossalDictionary of the English Language. The editors set Johnson's writings on the English language in historical context and provide the fullest possible account of their composition. Among the works presented in the volume are Johnson'sPlan of a Dictionary of the English Languageandthe Preface to theDictionary,both of which are counted among his finest works of prose.

Gwin J. Kolb is Chester D. Tripp Professor Emeritus in Humanities, University of Chicago. Robert DeMaria, Jr., is Henry Noble McCracken Professor of English at Vassar College.