Lives of the Poets

Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779–81) is a work by Samuel Johnson, comprising short biographies and critical appraisals of 52 poets, most of whom lived during the eighteenth century. It is arranged, approximately, by date of death.

Six of the Lives have been singled out as the most "important": John Milton, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, Jonathan Swift, and Thomas Gray. One of the lives, Richard Savage, was previously printed as Life of Mr Richard Savage in 1744.

Johnson began writing his "lives", or individual biographical pieces, in 1740. His first "lives" were of Jean-Philippe Baratier, Robert Blake, and Francis Drake. In 1744 he wrote his first serious "life", the Life of Mr Richard Savage, in honour of his friend Richard Savage. Between 1737 and 1739 Johnson became close to Savage. In 1743 Savage found himself in debtors' prison and stayed there until his death shortly after being admitted. A year later Johnson wrote Life of Savage (1744), a "moving" work that, according to Walter Jackson Bate, "remains one of the innovative works in the history of biography".

In 1773 publishers in Edinburgh started producing editions of the collected works of various English poets. In order to compete with this project Johnson was asked by Tom Davies, William Strahan and Thomas Cadell to create his final major work, the Lives of the English Poets. He began the project and, on 3 May 1777, wrote to James Boswell that he was busy preparing a "little Lives" and "little Prefaces, to a little edition of the English Poets". Johnson asked for 200 guineas, an amount significantly lower than the price he could have demanded. He wrote many biographies over the next few years and reproduced his Life of Savage for the collection.

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