Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741 [NS] -1821) was a British diarist, author, and patron of the arts also known as Hester Thrale. Her diaries and correspondence are an important source of information about eighteenth-century life. Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson was first published 26 March 1786. The Thraliana was full of anecdotes of Johnson which Piozzi used in writing this book. When this book was first published in 1786 it sold out within four days. Samuel Johnson was a major contributor to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was an Anglican and political conservative. He has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history"