Plan and Preface to a Dictionary of English

By Johnson, Samuel

Book Id: WPLBN0002950298
Format Type:
File Size: 68.37 MB
Reproduction Date: 2008

Title:	Plan and Preface to a Dictionary of English
Author:	Johnson, Samuel
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Non-fiction, History, Languages
Collections:	Audio Books Collection, Plan and Preface to a Dictionary of English
Historic Publication Date:	1755
Publisher:	LibriVox Audio Books


Citation APA MLA Chicago Johnson, B. S. (1755). Plan and Preface to a Dictionary of English. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.us/

Description
The published dictionary was a huge book: with pages nearly 1½ feet tall and 20 inches wide, it contained 42,773 words; it also sold for the huge price of £4/10s. ($400?). It would be years before Johnson's Dictionary, as it came to be known, would ever turn a profit; authors' royalities being unknown at that time, Johnson, once his contract to deliver the book was fulfilled, received no further monies connected to the book. Johnson, once again a freelance writer, albeit now a famous one, faced a grim hand-to-mouth existence; however, in July 1762 the twenty-four year old King George III granted Johnson an annual pension of £300. While not making Johnson rich, it allowed him a modest yet comfortable independence for the remaining thirty years of his life. (Summary from Wikipedia).

Summary
Electronic recorded live performance of a reading

Excerpt
History, Languages