[Music]
[Narrator] In 1747 in an attic room in Gough Square in London,
a remarkable literary project was underway.
Embracing the spirit of the 18th century, a dictionary had been commissioned --
a book that would do for the English language
what Newton had done for the stars:
classifying words, fixing their meaning, bringing order to the chaos of language.
>>by the farthing, for every copy we make him 80.
>>Careful, wholes day work there you know.
[Narrator] Nine years in the making this landmark of English literature
was the brain work of one man.
>>He was a frightful digger, huge, shambling,
twitching, blind in one eye.
>>[Female 1] Often his wig would be singed at the front from,
from holding a candle too close to his short-sighted eyes.
>>[Female 2] Lots of people when they first met him
thought he was a lunatic, until they were able to talk to him.
[Narrator] Samuel Dictionary Johnson an unlikely hero,
an eccentric unknown hat writer, destined to become a literary superstar.
Samuel Johnson's dictionary is one of the most important books ever written
in the English language.
In the 250 years since its publication it has served as a model
for dictionary writing throughout the world.
Today rare first editions are proudly preserved
in the world's great libraries.
[Henry Hitchings] So, here is the dictionary: two volumes,
forty two thousand seven hundred and seventy three words,
over a hundred thousand illustrated quotations,
two thousand three hundred pages.
And as you can see these are huge cumbersome books.
You couldn't pick one of the volumes up with one hand,
you might struggle to do it with two hands.
What's more I can't even touch this particular copy of it,
because this was the personal copy of King George the Third.
Usually, today, when we see a book on this kind of scale
that's something that's been produced by people collaborating large teams
of people who've come together.
And when it sits in front of you like this you're reminded of what a remarkable accomplishment it was for one man essentially unaided this is his work but it's also a book that's produced by one person who had to overcome incredible difficulties to do that in his personal life in the life of his mind we're talking about a guy who had incredible psychological difficulties obstacles and obstructions to his Labor's and this really very orderly production is at odds with that and that's a tribute really to Johnson's personal qualities
[Narrator] What we know about the author of this extraordinary book is largely gleaned from one of the most celebrated biographies in the English language Boswell's life of Johnson James Boswell was a young Scottish lawyer who met Johnson some eight years after the publication of the dictionary Boswell immediately fell under the authors spell and for over 20 years he doggedly pursued Johnson filling notebook after notebook with records of their many conversations intending one day to publish the story of Johnson's life truly conceived by those who Pina indeed have ventured to say there's more science and learning within a circumference of 10 miles of where we now sit there is in all the rest of the world well the only disadvantage is a very great distance at which people live from one another just occasion by its large which in turn is a very cause of all the other advantages there are times where I would willingly leave London retire to our desert either a deserts enough in Scotland a man of intellect would never willingly leave London nope when a man's tired of London he's tired in life well there is in London all that life can afford Johnson's passion for London is legendary he wrote his famous dictionary here in GOP's Square a house of Fleet Street which was in the 18th century the very heart of literary London welcome everybody to dr. Johnson's house I'd like to roll back in time a little bit just tell you a little bit about Johnson's earlier years if we could just have a look at the picture on the wall here now this is a rather quirky picture it's by Johnson's friend Joshua Reynolds and obviously it's retrospective as as Reynolds didn't know Johnson when he was about six months old or however old years and you can see even then he's having great thoughts about and about something now Johnson was born in in quite poor health I mean he was baptized on the spot and was with Johnson himself said that he was a diseased and sickly infant he contracted scrofula from his wet nurses milk which is TB at the lymph nodes he managed to throw it off naturally but this was not withstanding the several rather odd cures one of which is to have a cut made on the child's arm which was they're not allowed to heal up for several years but this scar filler did leave him badly affected in terms of his eyesight and his hearing he described himself as being nearly blind in one eye and certainly his hearing was very bad as well Johnson was born in Litchfield in the Midlands in 1709 the son of a bookseller he was from the very stars a voracious reader in his sickness he sought refuge in Greek and Latin classics taken from his father's shelves but Johnson's mother disapproved of much of his reading preferring instead to steer him towards Christian Texas find good things here things you'll need this one I don't just read it learn it don't you'll find things in here you'll never regret in life sir when Johnson was a child in petticoats and had learned to read his mother one morning put the Common Prayer book into his hands pointed to the collect for the day and said Sam you must get this by heart she went upstairs leaving him to study it but by the time she had reached the second floor she heard him following her what's the matter she said I can see it he replied and he repeated it distinctly though he could not have read it more than twice throughout his life Johnson was a stern moralist doubtless the result of his mother's early influence the family bookshop was equally significant in developing Johnson's precocious intellect but it failed to generate enough income to sent into university indeed it was only when he was nineteen years old that a chance legacy gave the family just enough money to get Johnson started at Pembroke College Oxford this is the college chapel which was some in the 18th century guard as one of the greatest monstrosity is to be erected so it was being built when Johnson first came here as an undergraduate but the rest of the court didn't exist at all thing was just works being carried out on this there about 40 students 40 students and fellows in total and that would be also you would know every Johnson would have made his presence felt because he would know simply everybody in the college and everyone would know him so I know so you can't be inconspicuous you can't fade into the background if you're in a college of only 40 people so he was you know and this would be up here would be where his rooms were so in the gatehouse which we can go and look up we have to imagine these some stairs and Johnson's time it would be very lighting Oxford 18th century Oxford is just full of hierarchy so where and where you lived proclaim very visibly the kind of student you were so Johnson may have defined himself as a gentleman but his rooms as you can see were not necessarily those pertaining to gentlemanlike status this would have been the bedroom hardly larger than a cupboard as it is recorded at the time when he'd been reading assiduously for years before that so he came equipped with a massive store of knowledge and it was in this room that he would have set his hundred volumes which he came equipped with what you know on horseback traveling these 76 miles from Litchfield so this is where it all happened where he would have written his essays and prepared his themes well Johnson's account of his time here is that he disregarded all power and all authority and I think that's what we can see almost from his first moments in the college and in his first week he's missing tutorials which is certainly something you wouldn't expect a student in their first week of their course to