Writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson is actually a fictional character created by James Boswell in his bestseller, "The Life of Samuel Johnson." Boswell would later publish several texts, including "The Vanity of Human Wishes", "Rasselas" and "Dictionary", purportedly by Johnson in order to keep his creation alive so that he could "vicariously achieve life eternal with quill and parchment" after failing with earlier, cruder methods involving hobos and electricity.