Young Sam Johnson

Johnson kept diaries throughout his life, and these are the earliest to have survived. Annales is a simple accounting, in Latin, of the major events in his life, beginning with his birth in 1709 and ending with the publication of his now lost prospectus for an edition of the poems of Politian. The Libellus, or little book, contains occasional entries from 1729 through 1734, beginning with Johnson's determination, as translated by Boswell, that "I bid farewell to Sloth, being resolved henceforth not to listen to her syren strains." This is followed by a plan of Latin authors to begin reading, and a table of how much he could accomplish if he read 10, 50, or even 600 lines a day.