Samuel Johnson

  • 50

    Catalog books

  • 20

    Works

  • 1953 to 2021

    Strongest span

Who This Author Is

Samuel Johnson’s Diaries, Prayers, and Annals collects personal records and spiritual reflections across a long, disciplined life. The volume moves between daily observation and inward address, showing a writer who interrogates habit, conscience, and time with exact, candid sentences and a steady attention to moral detail.

The book’s pages alternate journal entries, devotional passages, and chronological notes that together create a conversation with self and circumstance. Readers encounter a voice shaped by routine but alert to change, attentive to moral perplexities, domestic minutiae, and the slow accumulation of experience.

Best Place To Start

Author At A Glance

Best known for: Collected personal writings • Spiritual reflections and prayers • Long-form diary entries

Genres and themes: Spirituality • Devotional literature • Daily reflection • Memoir

Who this author is best for: For readers who value meditative, introspective writing and steady daily reading.

Begin with the diaries section to sample Johnson’s tone, then read the prayers and annals for thematic depth.

Top Books To Start With

  1. The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia (Oxford World's Classics)

    Oxford Univ Pr • 1999 • standard commitment

    UPB note: year signal: 1999 • 212 pages.

  2. Rasselas, Poems and Selected Prose (Rinehart Editions, 57)

    Thomson Learning • 1971 • oversized commitment

    It helps anchor a specific period of this author’s publishing run instead of blending into the undated shelf clutter.

  3. DIARIES, PRAYERS, AND ANNALS

    Yale Univ Pr • 1958 • oversized commitment

    UPB note: year signal: 1958 • 582 pages.

  4. An Account of the Life of MR Richard Savage, Son of the Earl Rivers

    Gale Ecco, Print Editions • 2018 • standard commitment

    UPB note: one of the most common used-copy publishers for this author • year signal: 2018 • 194 pages.

  5. The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. With Critical Observations on Their Works. By Samuel Johnson. A new Edition, Corrected. In Four Volumes. ... of 4; Volume 3

    Gale ECCO, Print Editions • 2018 • longer commitment

    UPB note: one of the most common used-copy publishers for this author • year signal: 2018 • 418 pages.

  6. The Rambler. by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Four Volumes in Two. ... of 2; Volume 1

    Gale Ecco, Print Editions • 2018 • longer commitment

    UPB note: one of the most common used-copy publishers for this author • year signal: 2018 • 390 pages.

  7. The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, With Critical Observations on Their Works. By Samuel Johnson. A new Edition, Corrected. In Four Volumes. ... of 4; Volume 2

    Gale ECCO, Print Editions • 2018 • longer commitment

    UPB note: one of the most common used-copy publishers for this author • year signal: 2018 • 458 pages.

  8. Notes to Shakespeare

    Pinnacle Press • 2017 • standard commitment

    UPB note: year signal: 2017 • 234 pages.

  9. A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (Dodo Press)

    Dodo Press • 2007 • quick commitment

    UPB note: year signal: 2007 • 156 pages.

  10. Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (Dodo Press)

    Dodo Press • 2007 • quick commitment

    UPB note: year signal: 2007 • 120 pages.

How The Picks Compare

  • The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia (Oxford World's Classics) is the easier short commitment, while Rasselas, Poems and Selected Prose (Rinehart Editions, 57) asks for more reading time up front.
  • Rasselas, Poems and Selected Prose (Rinehart Editions, 57) gives you an earlier look at this author’s shelf, while The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia (Oxford World's Classics) leans later in the catalog.
  • DIARIES, PRAYERS, AND ANNALS is also useful if you want a different publishing lane from The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia (Oxford World's Classics).

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