The Making of Johnson’s Dictionary 1746–1773

Following the discovery of manuscript materials, including hundreds of unpublished additions and changes, for Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, Allen Reddick describes the conception, composition, writing, and subsequent revision of the first great English dictionary, and the only dictionary created by a great writer. In this second edition of his acclaimed study, Reddick incorporates new commentary and scholarship, and situates The Making of Johnson’s Dictionary in current critical and scholarly debate.

• First-time paperback of acclaimed study of the making of Johnson’s dictionary • Clear and comprehensive account of the events surrounding the publication of a key text in British literary and cultural history • Second edition, including new preface and index

Preface; 1. Introduction: Johnson’s ‘Mind … on the stretch’: A Dictionary of the English Language; 2. ‘The plan of my undertaking’: the composition and purpose of the Plan of a Dictionary; 3. ‘I can do it in three years’: a false start on the Dictionary; 4. ‘Ended, though not completed’: the first edition published; 5. ‘I know not how to get loose’: the fourth edition; 6. ‘Unexpected truth’: the use of poetical authorities; 7. ‘Factious in a factious age’: theology and politics in the fourth edition; 8. ‘The world must, at present, take it as it is’: Johnson’s Dictionary after 1773; Appendices; Notes; Revised and expanded index.

‘… a major contribution to Johnsonian studies sure to endure the test of time … a methodological model that will doubtless influence future scholarship well beyond eighteenth-century or lexicographical studies … surely a landmark study.’ British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies

‘After Reddick, there can be no return to any unexamined sense of the Dictionary’s wholeness. At the same time, he makes Johnson’s achievement appear, if anything, greater, a more deeply human monument built out of shreds and patches.’ Times Literary Supplement

‘… a fascinating and wonderful piece of scholarly detective work … The chapter that Reddick bases solely on his new discoveries … is as good a single chapter as anyone has written in any book on Johnson of the last thirty years.’ The Age of Johnson

‘An important, exact, and fascinating book.’ Bibliographical Society of America

‘… a landmark study.’ Eighteenth-Century Studies ‘… a fascinating and wonderful piece of scholarly detective work.’ The Age of Johnson