The mild, sunny weather provided a perfect background to the Tercentenary celebrations during the weekend Sept. 18th - 21st. Many visitors gathered in Lichfield to watch parades, processions, son et lumiere, street theatre, listen to an Australian orator on Speakers' Corner and hear one Bishop (Lichfield) deliver his Presidential Address and another Bishop (London) give the Johnson Sermon.
Johnsonians from the Pembroke College Conference and others from far and near gathered to talk together in typical Johnsonian fashion! And on it all the sun shone and jokes about the English climate were quite out of place.
The Johnson Society's events were judged by everyone to have been a great success.
Some visitors stayed on long enough to attend the Penance commemoration in the Market Place at Uttoxeter where, near the spot where Johnson stood, there was a narrated re-enactment of the original event in front of a good-sized crowd of local people and schoolchildren.
If you were one of those who attended the celebrations and you have comments, memories or ideas you would like to share, please e-mail us at: info@thejohnsonsociety.org.uk and we will endeavour to enable visitors to this site to read your comments.
The last in this winter's series of lectures will be held on Sunday, February 14th at 2.30pm in Boley Park Community Centre, Lichfield. The speaker, Joanne Wilson, Curator of the Johnson Birthplace Museum, will be giving a talk on the book collections in the Museum.
Admission, £3-50, includes tea and cake. Everyone is welcome.
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ANNUAL JOHNSON LECTURE
"Samuel Johnson's Nation of Readers"
will be given by Dr. Mark Towsey,Liverpool University
in
United Reformed Church, Wade Street, Lichfield
from 7pm on Tuesday March 2nd.
Admission is free. All welcome.
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Johnson Society's Annual General Meeting
Wednesday, March 17th
in Lichfield Methodist Church,Tamworth Street 7.30pm
After formal business Dr. Nick Cambridge, Chmn Johnson Soc. of London will
give an illustrated talk on "The Tercentenary Walk to London"
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2009, the Tercentenary of the birth of Samuel Johnson, in Lichfield, seemed an appropriate time to launch this re-designed web site (replacing 'the rambler' web site).
The Johnson Society based in Lichfield is the oldest in the world. It has over 600 members scattered UK-wide and worldwide. This is a special year for Johnsonians - we want to make it easy for all those who want to know more about the most quoted figure in the English Literary world of the 18th Century to use this site.
Comments and suggestions for improvement of the page will be welcomed.
PLEASE NOTE: The site is still under construction and the archive of material from past issues of our annual journal "Transactions" is not yet complete.
The aims and activities of the Society are as follows:
- The main objective of the Lichfield Johnson Society is to further interest in the life, works and times of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the famous author and lexicographer, often known as Doctor Johnson or even 'Dictionary Johnson', who was born in Lichfield in 1709. His Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755. He was one of the most influential figures in English letters from 1755 to his death in 1784. He is also often referred to as Doctor Johnson.
- For more details of the society see 'About Us' below or click here. The activities of the Johnson Society focus around the Johnson Birthday Celebrations in mid September. The society also organises lectures, visits and other activities. These are all recorded in our journal " Transactions" which is published each January. All the papers, produced from 2001 onwards, are listed in 'Transactions and Papers'. See below or click here.
- Society activities and items of interest are listed in 'News and Events'. Either see below or click here.
- Most members of the society live in the UK but we have members worldwide, in Australia, Japan, Germany, USA and Canada. See 'Membership'.