I have been driving back and forth to New York a number of times in the last 10 days or so and after 30 years have finally made a second run at Boswell's Life of Johnson this time via books on tape-visions of my old English teachers beaming in pride
There are 30 tapes(2 sided and I have only finished 4)
Today I heard an anecdote concerning Johnson and a potential patron for his monumental dictionary discussing the emormity of the task ahead.
The patron questioned if Johnson could duplicate in 3 years the work of the 40 members of the French Academy who needed 40 years to complete their dictionary.
Johnson replied-(I'm paraphrasing)-Let's see-40 times 40 is 1600-1600 to 3 is the ratio of abilities for an Englishman versus a Frenchman
For some links on Johnson -
The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page: Quotes on France and
Here and Here
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