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Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (Hardcover)

by Jack Lynch (Editor)

4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
Samuel Johnson laboured for nine long years to compile his famous dictionary, eventually published in 1755. It was not the first English dictionary, and it immediately attracted criticisms from contemporaries such as the American lexicographer Noah Webster, for alleged inconsistencies and inaccuracies. Yet Johnson's tome soon became the definitive dictionary in England and America owing to its inclusion of words of common vernacular as well as its illustrations of word usage, using quotations from Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Swift, Dryden, etc. Edited by Jack Lynch, this shorter edition of the dictionary is a delightful book to thumb through for those who take an interest in the English language and its development. Yet it is sad to come across so many lovely words which have become defunct. Whatever happened to anatiferous: producing ducks; parbreak: vomit: circumferoneous: wandering from house from house: and to snudge: to be idle? At least sesquipedalian still endures in our language. Strongly recommended. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“A fine new condensed version…it still rewards browsing far more than any other dictionary on the market.”—David Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle

“If a dictionary can be said to have a personality, this one does…the great pleasure of such a book, [is] the way it returns language to us, expanding our ideas of what, exactly, English is…Lynch makes this monumental work manageable.”—David Ulin, Los Angeles Times

“An immensely useful tool for any Johnsonian, whether scholar or general reader, and performed with Lynch’s well-known learning and precision.”—Paul Fussell, author of Samuel Johnson and the Life of Writing and The Great War and Modern Memory

“Through the years I was working on John Adams, I kept an original edition of Johnson’s Dictionary at hand, as I became increasingly aware that the meanings of words in his time were often very different than in our day. I think this new edition has done all present-day lovers of the English language and of the incomparable Dr. Johnson a great service.”—David McCullough

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 656 pages
Publisher: Walker & Company (March 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802714218
ISBN-13: 978-0802714213
Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #171,254 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An all-star book available again for browsing, September 29, 2003

By	Frank Lynch "frank_lynch" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

.
In the 18th century, dictionaries weren't just consulted, they were browsed. That was largely thanks to Samuel Johnson's mammoth 1755 achievement, wherein he defined not just the difficult words, but also common words found in everyday speech; to their definitions, he added illustrative quotations from the finest works -- creating a volume that was a pleasure to read, an education, and one which provoked the reader down long paths. If you have the AMS reprint of Johnson's Dictionary (reprinted in the 1970's) you know it's a heavy volume, and not easy to sit in your lap. But Jack Lynch has extracted over 3,000 of the entries into a volume you can not only hold in your lap, but enjoy reading: the print is not tiny, so it's no strain. And it's a pleasure to read.

Jack Lynch has also provided an informative, breezy introduction, which puts Johnson's Dictionary in the context or prior efforts and those that followed, describes Johnson's task and process, and tells you the impact that Johnson had. A wonderful addition is in the back, wherein there are some great footnotes (such as, Johnson's definition of war was part of a US Supreme Court decision regarding the US decision to bomb Kosovo) and a reverse index of the types of words to be found... Jack Lynch ALSO provides a special Shakespearean index -- so you can look up which words Johnson supported with quotations from The Bard.

I already had the 1970s reprint, as well as the Cambridge CD-ROM, and wasn't sure I needed this. But I'm glad I bought it, it's wonderful to have, even for me.<P...

(By the way, I am not related to Jack Lynch, so it's not like I'm a family member trying to boost his sales.)

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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a Masterpiece, Just Wish This Ed Had More "Selections", November 14, 2003

By	Brian Sawyer (Westford, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Though at heart I'm strictly an OED man, and at work I tend to use the more practical Merriam-Webster's, I've always had a special place in my heart for Samuel Johnson's masterpiece, and I've cherished my facsimile copy (never had the $10,000 an original copy would set me back).

I'm a huge fan of the quirky charm and literary excellence that went into this unabashedly biased dictionary, so I giddily anticipated this new edition. After flipping through it at the bookstore, however, I was a little disappointed that it didn't offer much over my old facsimile copy. Though the new edition does include Johnson's original "Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language," I have that printed in another volume, and the reduction of the book to "selections" really cuts the book too short to warrant my buying it again.

That said, the entries that made the cut are still fabulous. You have to love a lexicographer ("a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge") who had the courage, interest, and patience to write an entire dictionary by himself but also had the modesty to admit that any mistakes were due to "ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance."

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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of logomachious fun, great for classes!, June 25, 2005

By	J. Davenport "author of *Will as Commmitment ... (Maplewood, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is by far the best selection of entries from Johnson's famous Dictionary available in print today. The difficult choice from among Johnson's many thousands of entries is well done, focusing on words we no longer use, or whose meaning has changed: this provides a window onto changes in English language and the character of 18th century thought, often with political and philosophical significance. Many of the entries are also intrinsically fascinating and/or humorous, making the book lots of fun. The book's introduction is first-rate, laying out the history and significance of this great lexicographic event in the history of our language. This combination makes the book useful for college courses. The author is a leading Johnson scholar and keeper of the primary website on 18th century English literature. He is also the author of a book on Johnson's insults, which I've found can come in very handy at department meetings.

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