Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language

This is the first electronic edition of one of the most important works ever compiled in English. Dr Johnson's Dictionary remains a major resource for and cornerstone of the English language. This CD-ROM presents the key 1755 and 1773 (First and Fourth) Editions, both of which have been available previously only in print facsimiles. Here the texts of both Editions have been transcribed and may be viewed side by side. In addition, digitized images of all the original pages are supplied. The software allows rapid searching of both Editions of the Dictionary for words, phrases, headwords, quotations and source-authors. The only publication ever to reproduce the key First and Fourth Editions of Johnson's Dictionary together, this CD-ROM will be of value to dictionary lovers and Johnsonians as well as to scholars, teachers, and students of language, literature, lexicography, history, and eighteenth-century studies.

Jack Lynch, a Johnson scholar and professor of English at Rutgers University, is the editor of "Samuel Johnson's Dictionary" and the author of "The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson,"


Anne McDermott is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Birmingham.