{"id":21225,"date":"2009-09-02T13:44:17","date_gmt":"2009-09-02T17:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"\/gazette\/?p=21225"},"modified":"2009-09-02T13:44:17","modified_gmt":"2009-09-02T17:44:17","slug":"johnson-at-300","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2009\/09\/johnson-at-300\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson at 300"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tArts & Culture\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tJohnson at 300\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tCorydon Ireland\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard News Office\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tCelebrating a man of letters whose words still sing and sting\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\t\t

Samuel Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary of the English Language\u201d was first published in 1755 as his attempt to both rein in and celebrate the galloping vigor of English. For 150 years, it was considered the pre-eminent compilation of its kind.<\/p>\n

But Johnson \u2014 born 300 years ago this coming Sept. 18 \u2014 was more than its author. He was England\u2019s most famous man of letters, rising from humble origins as the son of a provincial bookseller to become an accomplished poet, literary critic, playwright, essayist, and (not least) conversationalist.<\/p>\n

Johnson \u2014 in all his fullness, contradiction, erudition, and energy \u2014 was remembered, reviewed, and revered late last month (Aug. 27-29) in a Harvard literary celebration.<\/p>\n

The three-day event, \u201cJohnson at 300: A Houghton Library Symposium,\u201d drew more than a hundred Johnsonians from all over the world. A few were unaffiliated with the academy, including a Boston software designer, a Texas biology student, a retired New York City trial lawyer, and a Florida judge who not long ago was kicking down doors as a prosecutor on police raids.<\/p>\n

The symposium was the largest scholarly celebration of Johnson this year in the United States, said organizer Thomas Horrocks, Houghton\u2019s associate librarian for collections. He called the author \u201cthis good and great man.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gathering came with a bonus: \u201cA Monument More Durable than Brass<\/a>,\u201d a Houghton exhibit that samples the library\u2019s 15,000-item Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Look for Johnson\u2019s earliest surviving letter, his earliest diaries (kept in Latin), rare manuscript fragments from the original \u201cDictionary,\u201d and even the great man\u2019s silver teapot. The larger collection itself, at Harvard since 2004, \u201cis the greatest gift an archivist could have,\u201d said Houghton assistant curator John H. Overholt.<\/p>\n

During sessions at Emerson Hall and Lamont Library, presenters drew Johnson through multiple cultural and literary filters: revolution, fledgling America, gender, religion, the book trade, intellectual history, fine arts, and the \u201ccircle\u201d (including his biographer and fellow depressive James Boswell).<\/p>\n

Understandably, one symposium trope was Johnson and his influence on the art of biography, both as a writer and a subject. His six-volume \u201cLives of the Most Eminent English Poets,\u201d published just a few years before he died, enlivened the genre and recast it as a literary form. And his fame was assured by Boswell\u2019s \u201cThe Life of Samuel Johnson,\u201d itself a landmark of biography.<\/p>\n

Understandably also, there were two sessions on Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary,\u201d which took him nine years to write \u2014 though 80 percent of the work went into a feverish last 18 months, according to speaker Anne McDermott. She teaches at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) and has for 20 years been working on a scholarly edition of the 42,000-entry tome.<\/p>\n

McDermott delivered a paper on Johnson\u2019s compilation methods that argued, in part, that he wrote the dictionary twice, abandoning the first version after possibly getting as far as \u201cU.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also noted allusions of guilt in Johnson\u2019s essays written concurrently with the dictionary \u2014 guilt at not finishing sooner.\u00a0 The same passages also echo his self-confessed admission of the dictionary\u2019s imperfections. \u201cThe profit is less,\u201d one passage reads, \u201cthan hope had pictured it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also informing the symposium was Johnson\u2019s ceaseless and untrammeled commentary on the world around him, including what he considered the grasping barbarity of England\u2019s American cousins. He declared, famously, \u201cI am willing to love all mankind, except an American,\u201d and once called on slaves and American Indians to rise up against the rebels.<\/p>\n

Johnson also disliked imperial expansion, whether by England, France, or by a young America that was seemingly bound to exterminate its native peoples. He hated black slavery too, which was both another bite at upstart Americans and another sign of his moral prescience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wisdom of his scruples about America,\u201d\u00a0said Johnson scholar Thomas M. Curley of\u00a0Bridgewater (Mass.) State College, \u201cdeserves\u00a0special consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvard\u2019s Houghton Library, home to a comprehensive collection related to 18th century English literature, sponsored a three-day international literary celebration of lexicographer, poet, essayist, and moralist Samuel Johnson, born 300 years ago this year. His work has inspired centuries of scholarship and generations of fervent \u2018Johnsonians.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105622744,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gz_ga_pageviews":0,"gz_ga_lastupdated":"","document_color_palette":null,"author":"Corydon Ireland","affiliation":"Harvard News Office","_category_override":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1360],"tags":[3911,5883,6323,8791,10885,17232,25172,30341,31470,32955],"gazette-formats":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-21225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-humanities","tag-american-revolution","tag-biography","tag-boswell","tag-colonialism","tag-dictionary","tag-houghton-library","tag-native-american","tag-samuel-johnson","tag-slavery","tag-symposium"],"yoast_head":"\nJohnson at 300 — Harvard Gazette<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harvard\u2019s Houghton Library, home to a comprehensive collection related to 18th century English literature, sponsored a three-day international literary celebration of lexicographer, poet, essayist, and moralist Samuel Johnson, born 300 years ago this year. 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class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tCorydon Ireland\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard News Office\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2009-09-02\">\n\t\t\tSeptember 2, 2009\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t4 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tCelebrating a man of letters whose words still sing and sting\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>Samuel Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary of the English Language\u201d was first published in 1755 as his attempt to both rein in and celebrate the galloping vigor of English. For 150 years, it was considered the pre-eminent compilation of its kind.<\/p>\n<p>But Johnson \u2014 born 300 years ago this coming Sept. 18 \u2014 was more than its author. He was England\u2019s most famous man of letters, rising from humble origins as the son of a provincial bookseller to become an accomplished poet, literary critic, playwright, essayist, and (not least) conversationalist.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson \u2014 in all his fullness, contradiction, erudition, and energy \u2014 was remembered, reviewed, and revered late last month (Aug. 27-29) in a Harvard literary celebration.<\/p>\n<p>The three-day event, \u201cJohnson at 300: A Houghton Library Symposium,\u201d drew more than a hundred Johnsonians from all over the world. A few were unaffiliated with the academy, including a Boston software designer, a Texas biology student, a retired New York City trial lawyer, and a Florida judge who not long ago was kicking down doors as a prosecutor on police raids.<\/p>\n<p>The symposium was the largest scholarly celebration of Johnson this year in the United States, said organizer Thomas Horrocks, Houghton\u2019s associate librarian for collections. He called the author \u201cthis good and great man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The gathering came with a bonus: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/hcl.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\/exhibits\/johnson\/\">A Monument More Durable than Brass<\/a>,\u201d a Houghton exhibit that samples the library\u2019s 15,000-item Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Look for Johnson\u2019s earliest surviving letter, his earliest diaries (kept in Latin), rare manuscript fragments from the original \u201cDictionary,\u201d and even the great man\u2019s silver teapot. The larger collection itself, at Harvard since 2004, \u201cis the greatest gift an archivist could have,\u201d said Houghton assistant curator John H. Overholt.<\/p>\n<p>During sessions at Emerson Hall and Lamont Library, presenters drew Johnson through multiple cultural and literary filters: revolution, fledgling America, gender, religion, the book trade, intellectual history, fine arts, and the \u201ccircle\u201d (including his biographer and fellow depressive James Boswell).<\/p>\n<p>Understandably, one symposium trope was Johnson and his influence on the art of biography, both as a writer and a subject. His six-volume \u201cLives of the Most Eminent English Poets,\u201d published just a few years before he died, enlivened the genre and recast it as a literary form. And his fame was assured by Boswell\u2019s \u201cThe Life of Samuel Johnson,\u201d itself a landmark of biography.<\/p>\n<p>Understandably also, there were two sessions on Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary,\u201d which took him nine years to write \u2014 though 80 percent of the work went into a feverish last 18 months, according to speaker Anne McDermott. She teaches at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) and has for 20 years been working on a scholarly edition of the 42,000-entry tome.<\/p>\n<p>McDermott delivered a paper on Johnson\u2019s compilation methods that argued, in part, that he wrote the dictionary twice, abandoning the first version after possibly getting as far as \u201cU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also noted allusions of guilt in Johnson\u2019s essays written concurrently with the dictionary \u2014 guilt at not finishing sooner.\u00a0 The same passages also echo his self-confessed admission of the dictionary\u2019s imperfections. \u201cThe profit is less,\u201d one passage reads, \u201cthan hope had pictured it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also informing the symposium was Johnson\u2019s ceaseless and untrammeled commentary on the world around him, including what he considered the grasping barbarity of England\u2019s American cousins. He declared, famously, \u201cI am willing to love all mankind, except an American,\u201d and once called on slaves and American Indians to rise up against the rebels.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson also disliked imperial expansion, whether by England, France, or by a young America that was seemingly bound to exterminate its native peoples. He hated black slavery too, which was both another bite at upstart Americans and another sign of his moral prescience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe wisdom of his scruples about America,\u201d\u00a0said Johnson scholar Thomas M. Curley of\u00a0Bridgewater (Mass.) State College, \u201cdeserves\u00a0special consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>Samuel Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary of the English Language\u201d was first published in 1755 as his attempt to both rein in and celebrate the galloping vigor of English. For 150 years, it was considered the pre-eminent compilation of its kind.<\/p>\n<p>But Johnson \u2014 born 300 years ago this coming Sept. 18 \u2014 was more than its author. He was England\u2019s most famous man of letters, rising from humble origins as the son of a provincial bookseller to become an accomplished poet, literary critic, playwright, essayist, and (not least) conversationalist.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson \u2014 in all his fullness, contradiction, erudition, and energy \u2014 was remembered, reviewed, and revered late last month (Aug. 27-29) in a Harvard literary celebration.<\/p>\n<p>The three-day event, \u201cJohnson at 300: A Houghton Library Symposium,\u201d drew more than a hundred Johnsonians from all over the world. A few were unaffiliated with the academy, including a Boston software designer, a Texas biology student, a retired New York City trial lawyer, and a Florida judge who not long ago was kicking down doors as a prosecutor on police raids.<\/p>\n<p>The symposium was the largest scholarly celebration of Johnson this year in the United States, said organizer Thomas Horrocks, Houghton\u2019s associate librarian for collections. He called the author \u201cthis good and great man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The gathering came with a bonus: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/hcl.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\/exhibits\/johnson\/\">A Monument More Durable than Brass<\/a>,\u201d a Houghton exhibit that samples the library\u2019s 15,000-item Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Look for Johnson\u2019s earliest surviving letter, his earliest diaries (kept in Latin), rare manuscript fragments from the original \u201cDictionary,\u201d and even the great man\u2019s silver teapot. The larger collection itself, at Harvard since 2004, \u201cis the greatest gift an archivist could have,\u201d said Houghton assistant curator John H. Overholt.<\/p>\n<p>During sessions at Emerson Hall and Lamont Library, presenters drew Johnson through multiple cultural and literary filters: revolution, fledgling America, gender, religion, the book trade, intellectual history, fine arts, and the \u201ccircle\u201d (including his biographer and fellow depressive James Boswell).<\/p>\n<p>Understandably, one symposium trope was Johnson and his influence on the art of biography, both as a writer and a subject. His six-volume \u201cLives of the Most Eminent English Poets,\u201d published just a few years before he died, enlivened the genre and recast it as a literary form. And his fame was assured by Boswell\u2019s \u201cThe Life of Samuel Johnson,\u201d itself a landmark of biography.<\/p>\n<p>Understandably also, there were two sessions on Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary,\u201d which took him nine years to write \u2014 though 80 percent of the work went into a feverish last 18 months, according to speaker Anne McDermott. She teaches at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) and has for 20 years been working on a scholarly edition of the 42,000-entry tome.<\/p>\n<p>McDermott delivered a paper on Johnson\u2019s compilation methods that argued, in part, that he wrote the dictionary twice, abandoning the first version after possibly getting as far as \u201cU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also noted allusions of guilt in Johnson\u2019s essays written concurrently with the dictionary \u2014 guilt at not finishing sooner.\u00a0 The same passages also echo his self-confessed admission of the dictionary\u2019s imperfections. \u201cThe profit is less,\u201d one passage reads, \u201cthan hope had pictured it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also informing the symposium was Johnson\u2019s ceaseless and untrammeled commentary on the world around him, including what he considered the grasping barbarity of England\u2019s American cousins. He declared, famously, \u201cI am willing to love all mankind, except an American,\u201d and once called on slaves and American Indians to rise up against the rebels.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson also disliked imperial expansion, whether by England, France, or by a young America that was seemingly bound to exterminate its native peoples. He hated black slavery too, which was both another bite at upstart Americans and another sign of his moral prescience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe wisdom of his scruples about America,\u201d\u00a0said Johnson scholar Thomas M. Curley of\u00a0Bridgewater (Mass.) State College, \u201cdeserves\u00a0special consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>Samuel Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary of the English Language\u201d was first published in 1755 as his attempt to both rein in and celebrate the galloping vigor of English. For 150 years, it was considered the pre-eminent compilation of its kind.<\/p>\n<p>But Johnson \u2014 born 300 years ago this coming Sept. 18 \u2014 was more than its author. He was England\u2019s most famous man of letters, rising from humble origins as the son of a provincial bookseller to become an accomplished poet, literary critic, playwright, essayist, and (not least) conversationalist.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson \u2014 in all his fullness, contradiction, erudition, and energy \u2014 was remembered, reviewed, and revered late last month (Aug. 27-29) in a Harvard literary celebration.<\/p>\n<p>The three-day event, \u201cJohnson at 300: A Houghton Library Symposium,\u201d drew more than a hundred Johnsonians from all over the world. A few were unaffiliated with the academy, including a Boston software designer, a Texas biology student, a retired New York City trial lawyer, and a Florida judge who not long ago was kicking down doors as a prosecutor on police raids.<\/p>\n<p>The symposium was the largest scholarly celebration of Johnson this year in the United States, said organizer Thomas Horrocks, Houghton\u2019s associate librarian for collections. He called the author \u201cthis good and great man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The gathering came with a bonus: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/hcl.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\/exhibits\/johnson\/\">A Monument More Durable than Brass<\/a>,\u201d a Houghton exhibit that samples the library\u2019s 15,000-item Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Look for Johnson\u2019s earliest surviving letter, his earliest diaries (kept in Latin), rare manuscript fragments from the original \u201cDictionary,\u201d and even the great man\u2019s silver teapot. The larger collection itself, at Harvard since 2004, \u201cis the greatest gift an archivist could have,\u201d said Houghton assistant curator John H. Overholt.<\/p>\n<p>During sessions at Emerson Hall and Lamont Library, presenters drew Johnson through multiple cultural and literary filters: revolution, fledgling America, gender, religion, the book trade, intellectual history, fine arts, and the \u201ccircle\u201d (including his biographer and fellow depressive James Boswell).<\/p>\n<p>Understandably, one symposium trope was Johnson and his influence on the art of biography, both as a writer and a subject. His six-volume \u201cLives of the Most Eminent English Poets,\u201d published just a few years before he died, enlivened the genre and recast it as a literary form. And his fame was assured by Boswell\u2019s \u201cThe Life of Samuel Johnson,\u201d itself a landmark of biography.<\/p>\n<p>Understandably also, there were two sessions on Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary,\u201d which took him nine years to write \u2014 though 80 percent of the work went into a feverish last 18 months, according to speaker Anne McDermott. She teaches at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) and has for 20 years been working on a scholarly edition of the 42,000-entry tome.<\/p>\n<p>McDermott delivered a paper on Johnson\u2019s compilation methods that argued, in part, that he wrote the dictionary twice, abandoning the first version after possibly getting as far as \u201cU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also noted allusions of guilt in Johnson\u2019s essays written concurrently with the dictionary \u2014 guilt at not finishing sooner.\u00a0 The same passages also echo his self-confessed admission of the dictionary\u2019s imperfections. \u201cThe profit is less,\u201d one passage reads, \u201cthan hope had pictured it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also informing the symposium was Johnson\u2019s ceaseless and untrammeled commentary on the world around him, including what he considered the grasping barbarity of England\u2019s American cousins. He declared, famously, \u201cI am willing to love all mankind, except an American,\u201d and once called on slaves and American Indians to rise up against the rebels.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson also disliked imperial expansion, whether by England, France, or by a young America that was seemingly bound to exterminate its native peoples. He hated black slavery too, which was both another bite at upstart Americans and another sign of his moral prescience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe wisdom of his scruples about America,\u201d\u00a0said Johnson scholar Thomas M. Curley of\u00a0Bridgewater (Mass.) State College, \u201cdeserves\u00a0special consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>Samuel Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary of the English Language\u201d was first published in 1755 as his attempt to both rein in and celebrate the galloping vigor of English. For 150 years, it was considered the pre-eminent compilation of its kind.<\/p>\n<p>But Johnson \u2014 born 300 years ago this coming Sept. 18 \u2014 was more than its author. He was England\u2019s most famous man of letters, rising from humble origins as the son of a provincial bookseller to become an accomplished poet, literary critic, playwright, essayist, and (not least) conversationalist.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson \u2014 in all his fullness, contradiction, erudition, and energy \u2014 was remembered, reviewed, and revered late last month (Aug. 27-29) in a Harvard literary celebration.<\/p>\n<p>The three-day event, \u201cJohnson at 300: A Houghton Library Symposium,\u201d drew more than a hundred Johnsonians from all over the world. A few were unaffiliated with the academy, including a Boston software designer, a Texas biology student, a retired New York City trial lawyer, and a Florida judge who not long ago was kicking down doors as a prosecutor on police raids.<\/p>\n<p>The symposium was the largest scholarly celebration of Johnson this year in the United States, said organizer Thomas Horrocks, Houghton\u2019s associate librarian for collections. He called the author \u201cthis good and great man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The gathering came with a bonus: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/hcl.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\/exhibits\/johnson\/\">A Monument More Durable than Brass<\/a>,\u201d a Houghton exhibit that samples the library\u2019s 15,000-item Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Look for Johnson\u2019s earliest surviving letter, his earliest diaries (kept in Latin), rare manuscript fragments from the original \u201cDictionary,\u201d and even the great man\u2019s silver teapot. The larger collection itself, at Harvard since 2004, \u201cis the greatest gift an archivist could have,\u201d said Houghton assistant curator John H. Overholt.<\/p>\n<p>During sessions at Emerson Hall and Lamont Library, presenters drew Johnson through multiple cultural and literary filters: revolution, fledgling America, gender, religion, the book trade, intellectual history, fine arts, and the \u201ccircle\u201d (including his biographer and fellow depressive James Boswell).<\/p>\n<p>Understandably, one symposium trope was Johnson and his influence on the art of biography, both as a writer and a subject. His six-volume \u201cLives of the Most Eminent English Poets,\u201d published just a few years before he died, enlivened the genre and recast it as a literary form. And his fame was assured by Boswell\u2019s \u201cThe Life of Samuel Johnson,\u201d itself a landmark of biography.<\/p>\n<p>Understandably also, there were two sessions on Johnson\u2019s \u201cDictionary,\u201d which took him nine years to write \u2014 though 80 percent of the work went into a feverish last 18 months, according to speaker Anne McDermott. She teaches at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) and has for 20 years been working on a scholarly edition of the 42,000-entry tome.<\/p>\n<p>McDermott delivered a paper on Johnson\u2019s compilation methods that argued, in part, that he wrote the dictionary twice, abandoning the first version after possibly getting as far as \u201cU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also noted allusions of guilt in Johnson\u2019s essays written concurrently with the dictionary \u2014 guilt at not finishing sooner.\u00a0 The same passages also echo his self-confessed admission of the dictionary\u2019s imperfections. \u201cThe profit is less,\u201d one passage reads, \u201cthan hope had pictured it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also informing the symposium was Johnson\u2019s ceaseless and untrammeled commentary on the world around him, including what he considered the grasping barbarity of England\u2019s American cousins. He declared, famously, \u201cI am willing to love all mankind, except an American,\u201d and once called on slaves and American Indians to rise up against the rebels.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson also disliked imperial expansion, whether by England, France, or by a young America that was seemingly bound to exterminate its native peoples. He hated black slavery too, which was both another bite at upstart Americans and another sign of his moral prescience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe wisdom of his scruples about America,\u201d\u00a0said Johnson scholar Thomas M. Curley of\u00a0Bridgewater (Mass.) State College, \u201cdeserves\u00a0special consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42455,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2004\/03\/harvard-gazette-hyde-collection-finds-home-at-harvard\/","url_meta":{"origin":21225,"position":0},"title":"Hyde collection finds home at Harvard","author":"gazetteimport","date":"March 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Samuel Johnson, creator of \"A dictionary of the English language,\" is one of the most quoted of English writers, second only to Shakespeare; and the latter part of the 18th century is often called, simply, the Age of Johnson.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":143015,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/09\/houghtons-heroes\/","url_meta":{"origin":21225,"position":1},"title":"Houghton\u2019s heroes","author":"harvardgazette","date":"September 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Houghton Library, Harvard's home to literary and historical treasures, is more like a museum than your typical library.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/houghton_03_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/houghton_03_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/houghton_03_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":104183,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2012\/03\/harvards-first-impressions\/","url_meta":{"origin":21225,"position":2},"title":"Harvard\u2019s first impressions","author":"harvardgazette","date":"March 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Colonies\u2019 first printing press, in operation by 1638, was the instrument behind New England\u2019s first literary flowering.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/022912_old_press_016_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/022912_old_press_016_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/022912_old_press_016_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3442,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2009\/02\/houghton-to-host-four-major-symposia\/","url_meta":{"origin":21225,"position":3},"title":"Houghton to host four major symposia","author":"harvardgazette","date":"February 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Ballets Russes, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the 300th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Johnson \u2014 and all four will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130914,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/02\/100-years-of-harvard-university-press\/","url_meta":{"origin":21225,"position":4},"title":"100 years of Harvard University Press","author":"harvardgazette","date":"February 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This year marks the 100th anniversary of Harvard University Press (HUP), and as part of a yearlong celebration Houghton Library is hosting an exhibition of HUP publications, correspondence, and other materials.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/hup_room_ma13_44_01-605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/hup_room_ma13_44_01-605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/hup_room_ma13_44_01-605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":150050,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/12\/how-to-speak-american\/","url_meta":{"origin":21225,"position":5},"title":"How to speak American","author":"harvardgazette","date":"December 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Harvard University Press delivers the flavor and idiosyncrasies of our spoken language in a new online version of the acclaimed \u201cDictionary of American Regional English.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21225"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=21225"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=21225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}