The first part is here.
The creation of the English language as a whole was completed with the publication of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary on April 15, 1755. It was not the first English dictionary, and not even the first ten in a row. That would not be the most voluminous dictionary. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary was originally conceived as the standard of the English language and served as it for 173 years, before the publication of the Oxford Dictionary.
In 1746, a consortium of the most successful book publishers in London, the most authoritative members of which were Robert Dodsley and Thomas Longman, signed a contract to create an English dictionary with the already well-known writer Samuel Johnson in narrow circles. Such a vocabulary was vital. By the mid-18th century, thanks to technical advances in printing and binding, books, brochures and newspapers were, for the first time, available to the general public at reasonable prices. The explosion of the printed word required the familiar grammar and spelling rules for words. This could have been achieved with the help of an authoritative dictionary of the English language.
William Strahan signed the contract on behalf of the publishers. On the government side, the project was overseen by Lord Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, who at that time was Secretary of State, whose duties included the actual government of England and Wales. The Earl of Chesterfield complained that the English language lacked structure and argued: “We must resort to the old Roman expediency in times of confusion and choose a dictator; therefore I cast my vote for Mr. Johnson to fill this great and difficult position. Earl of Chesterfield financed the project and spurred on its early completion, threatening to stop giving money.
Johnson originally promised to complete the creation of the dictionary in three years. For comparison, the French Academy is forty years old. Naturally, in such a short time, Johnson did not succeed. The work dragged on for ten years. It would be naive to suggest that Johnson worked alone. For "copying and mechanical work," he hired a large staff of assistants. According to eyewitnesses, constant noise and disorder reigned in his house. Hundreds of books were scattered around, some of which, unique and expensive, were read to the bone, in the truest sense of this expression.
The dictionary was published in April 1755. Johnson was immediately awarded a Master of Arts degree. The dictionary was a huge book, 41 centimeters high and 51 centimeters wide, and contained 42,773 articles. The dictionary was sold at a huge, even by today's standards, price - 410 pounds sterling per copy. However, it sold out well, which allowed the project to pay off financially. Johnson himself was given a life pension of £ 300 by King George II. The pension did not make the titular author of the dictionary rich, but it did make it more or less to make ends meet.
The main innovation in the dictionary was that Johnson reinforced the meaning of words with quotations from literary works, including Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden. There were about 114 thousand such quotes. The most frequently cited author was, of course, Shakespeare. Not surprisingly, after finishing work on the dictionary, Johnson started editing his works. But this is a topic for another story.