Practically speaking, the Johnson Society of the Central Region was founded in 1959 in Chicago. We normally meet at various times in the Spring at various North American mid-western universities.

The Johnson Society remains one of the senior and most distinguished of small scholarly societies. We are as well known for collegial clubability as for uncommonly distinguished intellectual exchange. Our presidents have included Paul Alkon, Sheridan Baker, Jean Hagstrum, Phillip Harth, Gwin Kolb, Ricardo Quintana, Bruce Redford, Albert Rivero, and James Winn, among other distinguished eighteenth-century colleagues. Our Guest Speakers have included Louis Bredvold, James Clifford, Ralph Cohen, Patricia Craddock, Margaret Doody, Donald Greene, Isobel Grundy, Robert Hume, Paul Hunter, Louis Landa, Maximillian Novak, Ronald Paulson, Claude Rawson, Pat Rogers, Patricia Spacks, Susan Staves, and Richard Wendorf, again among other distinguished eighteenth-century colleagues. Four of our presidents also have been presidents of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

Though our name denotes a region and an author, we include members from both American coasts, Canada, and the United Kingdom. We have met in Canada on several occasions, and include papers on a wide range of eighteenth-century topics.

After repeated requests, in about 1975 we agreed to become an affiliate of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Papers read at our conference thus are eligible for publication in the ASECS Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture.

The Society's semi-annual News Letter is sent to about 300 friends and members. Each meeting itself includes about ten or twelve papers delivered to an audience of about fifty. Most of those who attend are university-affiliated scholars. The Society nonetheless welcomes and encourages membership by anyone with broad intellectual interests in the eighteenth century, or with an enthusiasm for Samuel Johnson.