Samuel Johnson engraving

Object location: Bedroom

The Works of Samuel Johnson. Grand

In their integrity they stand,

Thrice worthy of the library shelf

Of any man that loves himself

And letters, and humanity,

Even in nineteen eighty-three.

From ‘Lines composed on acquiring “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, in eleven volumes, MDCCLXXXVII’, (1983) in The Complete Works of Sangharakshita, volume 25, p.370

On the far wall of the bedroom you will see a framed portrait of one of Sangharakshita’s literary heroes: Dr Samuel Johnson. Sangharakshita’s reading of classical authors began at a young age and by the time he was fourteen he was working his way through the collected works of Dr Johnson which became a lifelong favourite. In the Sangharakshita Library at Adhisthana you can see a number of editions of Dr Johnson’s works that Sangharakshita purchased at various times.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. His Dictionary of the English Language – acclaimed as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship” – was published in 1755 after nine years of preparation. Paramartha remembers accompanying Sangharakshita on his first visit to the townhouse in Lichfield, Staffordshire (now a museum) where Dr Johnson was born and where he spent the first twenty-seven years of his life.