Samuel Johnson, often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and has been described as arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history . He is also the subject of the most famous single biographical work in the whole of literature, James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.