Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland
Samuel Johnson, or 'Dr. Johnson', was born in Lichfield in 1709 and contributed to the development of English literature in many ways, including as an essayist, critic and dictionary compiler. In his early career, he struggled both as a schoolteacher and as a writer. Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, first published in 1755, was not the first English dictionary, but it was the first to systematically record the usage of words, and how it changed. He died in December 1784.