Samuel Johnson
British · 18th century
18th-century English poet, scholar, essayist, and lexicographer, famous for his Dictionary of the English Language and for the quote 'When you're tired of London, you're tired of life.'
Connection to Taylor Swift
Source of the 'when you're tired of London, you're tired of life' quote (recorded in Boswell's Life of Johnson) that frames the cultural and emotional weight of the city in So Long, London. Major 18th-century English writer, lexicographer, and critic.
Notable Works
- A Dictionary of the English Language, The Rambler, Rasselas
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
Samuel Johnson on London
“So (So) long (Long), London (London)”
Uncle Jerry frames the song's London register by citing Samuel Johnson's famous remark, recorded by James Boswell, that to tire of London is to tire of life. Taylor's title-line operates in conversation with this culturally embedded quote: the speaker is saying so long to London (and to the life she built there), and the act of leaving carries the weight of Johnson's framing of London as the place where all of life can be found.