Samuel Johnson is buried in 'Poet's Corner', Westminster Abbey, London,
England.
Burial Stone of Samuel Johnson
Photograph by Mike Reed
Johnson
died in a house in Bolt Court which lay to the north of Fleet St. but has now been
demolished. Bolt Court led into Gough Square where he lived from 1749-1759. The
Gough Square residence is the only one of his houses to have survived. It was here
that he worked on his famous Dictionary compiled by himself, and six full
time clerks who he employed. In 1777, at the request of various booksellers, Johnson
undertook to write The Lives of the English Poets - a work which is now
regarded as one of his greatest achievements.
Johnson's own life was meticulously written up by his
friend and travelling companion James Boswell and first appeared in 1791.
Although a considerable poet,
Johnson is better remembered for his witty conversation, his eccentricities and his
disparaging remarks about Scots, Whigs and Americans, He famously
defined 'oats' as: "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses,
but in Scotland supports the people."
See also 'Poets on Poetry'. |
