Tercentenary of Samuel Johnson held at Oxford
14 Sep 09
Experts on Samuel Johnson from around the world will be convening at Oxford today to celebrate 300 years since the prolific writer’s birth.
Johnson at 300, a conference celebrating the life and work of the Oxford alumnus, will be held at his former college, Pembroke, between 14 and 18 September. New research from international academics will be revealed and a new biography of Samuel Johnson will be launched at the event by one of the speakers, Professor David Nokes of King’s College London.
To celebrate Pembroke’s association with Johnson, one of the College’s original buildings will be re-named the Samuel Johnson Building, with the ceremony taking place during the conference. This building, which dates from 1699 and which was completely refurbished in 2005, originally served as the Master’s Lodgings and is the place where Johnson spent many happy hours with then Master, William Adams.
Although Johnson’s undergraduate career lasted only thirteen months, he continued to feel deep affection for Oxford. He paid regular visits to the city between 1755, when he published his celebrated Dictionary, and 1784, the year of his death.
Dr Freya JohnstonPerhaps no figure other than Shakespeare has become so representative of his age and country.
The conference, supported by a grant from the John Fell Fund, will have a strong Oxford presence. Four of the speakers are based in Oxford and three of the plenary speakers are Oxford alumni. The former are Freya Johnston, Lynda Mugglestone, Charlotte Brewer and Robin Darwall-Smith.
Talks will cover all aspects of Johnson’s life and work – from his views on children, his marriage, and caricatures and portraits of him to his Dictionary and even his final words.
One of the organisers, Dr Freya Johnston of Oxford’s English faculty, said: ‘This September, we’re delighted to be celebrating the 300th birthday of Dr Samuel Johnson at Pembroke College. One of the most distinguished figures in English literary history, Johnson was proud to have studied here and he returned to Oxford throughout his life. As a writer, he was astonishingly versatile, producing fiction, poetry, sermons, lectures, journalism, literary criticism, political pamphlets, a fairytale, a travelogue, biographies, an edition of Shakespeare’s plays, and a dictionary of the English language.
‘Johnson also survives, thanks to his friends and biographers, as a doughty, combative speaker who wrestled with depression, anxiety, and physical affliction. Perhaps no figure other than Shakespeare has become so representative of his age and country. We hope to provide a unique opportunity to take stock of recent scholarship, and to frame new directions in Johnson studies. Among our 48 confirmed speakers are many internationally renowned scholars who have set the agenda for Johnson scholarship in the past three decades.’
Three hundred years on, Johnson is as popular as ever. The 250th anniversary (in 2005) of the publication of Johnson’s Dictionary resulted in several major conferences including one at Pembroke, and a host of popular and scholarly books and articles. Three new biographies of Johnson will have appeared between 2008 and the end of 2009 while periodicals devoted to Johnson are thriving in the UK and overseas and generate hundreds of pages of commentary every year.