Loren Rothschild, a noted collector of the works of Samuel Johnson, talks about the life and work of the great 18th-century man of letters who compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language.

About Books

Samuel Johnson and His Famous Dictionary

The Huntington Library’s collection includes printed books from the 15th century to the present. Among its treasures are a copy of Johann Gutenberg’s Bible and the first folio edition of William Shakespeare’s collected plays, published in 1623. In lectures and interviews curators and visiting scholars discuss topics such as book collecting, printing, and the formation of great libraries.