# Samuel Johnson — On the Art of Writing character guide

> Samuel Johnson in On the Art of Writing by Arthur Quiller-Couch.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Johnson, Samuel

**First appearance:** 0003-lecture-i-inaugural

## Snapshot

The gruff lexicographer-critic who survives because he never saw literature but as part of life, refusing any phrase empty of life or false to it.

## Who they are

He is offered as the counterweight to the notion that critics are artificial in phrase and pedantic in judgment, a man who could be wrongheaded and perverse yet could not let a well-turned but lifeless phrase pass. His willingness to damn Milton for political hatred shows the flaw, while his refusal to tolerate what was false to life shows the virtue. He matters because he embodies the book's central test: that writing lives only when it stays true to human experience.

## In the story

### [Lecture I: Inaugural](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/chapters/lecture-i-inaugural)

Cited for his definition of poetry and his comment on Gray's 'Elegy'.

### [Lecture XII: On Style](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/chapters/lecture-xii-on-style)

Cited as a critic who judged literature by its truth to life, ensuring his own survival as a writer.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/characters/johnson
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/characters