Historedia
Episode 1 of 1

Contract Signing

When
18 June 1746
Where
London
Part of
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary Contract

Johnson signed a 1,500-guinea contract with William Strahan and associates to write an authoritative English dictionary.

On the morning of 18 June 1746, Samuel Johnson formalized his agreement with William Strahan and associates. The contract, valued at 1,500 guineas, committed Johnson to creating a new standard reference for the English language.

Sources

  1. Samuel Johnson Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-19
  2. A Dictionary of the English Language Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-02

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.