Samuel Johnson

John Wain, an English poet, novelist, and critic, published his biography "Samuel Johnson" in 1975. Wain was associated with the literary group known as The Movement, along with Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis.

Samuel Johnson is best known for his "A Dictionary of the English Language," published in 1755 after nearly nine years of work. The dictionary was one of the most important single-author reference works in English until the Oxford English Dictionary began publication over a century later.

James Boswell's famous "Life of Samuel Johnson," published in 1791, was written by a close friend who spent years in Johnson's company and documented his conversations in remarkable detail. Wain's 1975 biography, written nearly 200 years later, provides a more distanced and analytical perspective, drawing on a broader range of sources and modern scholarship.

The biography was published in 1975 by Viking Press. It was one of several major Johnson biographies of the 20th century, joining works by W. Jackson Bate and others.

The book received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, one of Britain's oldest and most prestigious literary awards. Wain's biography was praised for its accessible style and sympathetic but clear-eyed portrayal of Johnson's complex personality.