Samuel Johnson

2 Pages 516 Words

Samuel Johnson was one of the most well known men of
his time and has contributed so much to the writing
world. He overcame tremendous odds and adversity and
should always been instilled in the hearts of the
world as a wonderful man who wanted to use his
creative mind to produce astounding literature and to
have fun.
Johnson was born in Lichfield, England on September
18, 1709. Here he grew up with his father Michael, who
was a bookseller to support the family. When Johnson
was born he certainly wasn’t born healthy and was
singled out at an early age, being kept away from most
and having problems with almost every body part. He
was blind in one eye and suffered from a hearing loss,
which was attained when under the care of a tubercular
nurse. Later in his toddler year, he had an open
“issue” to drain excess fluid that built up in his
arm.
Not only was he scarred from physical problems, he
also had to face the hardships of poverty. Once when
attending oxford, later in his educational years,
another student took notice of his deprivation of
money and gave him new shoes. Most would take this
offer and be happy, but Johnson was infuriated that
someone observed that he was poor. This event alone
with other childhood incidents showed his independence
and refusal to depend on others. But, unfortunately,
he had to leave Oxford for those exact financial
problems and fell into a depression. To help him
through this depression was his friend Edmund Hector
that remained by his side. But following this
depression, a bright point in Samuel Johnson’s life
was his marriage to Elizabeth “Tetty” Porter who was
46 years old, when he was just 25.
Johnson’s first attempt at a career was to be a
schoolmaster but this failed because they students
were not accepting and respectful of the twitching and
odd appearance of Johnson. Next, in 1738, he went to
London to seek wealth and attained employment as
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