High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784) was an English author born in Lichfield, Staffordshire. He was a sickly infant who early on began to exhibit the tics that would influence how people viewed him in his later years. From childhood he displayed great intelligence and an eagerness for learning, but his early years were dominated by his family`s financial strain and his efforts to establish himself as a school teacher.