Boswell, James

Boswell, James (1740-95), writer, b. Edinburgh, Scotland.

James Boswell was a wealthy young Scotsman living in London and interested in writing and the arts.

On 16 May, 1763 he met Dr. Samuel Johnson in the back room of a bookshop in Russell Street, Covent Garden, and the two became friends.

Johnson was fifty-four, and Boswell looked upon him as the greatest man alive. Afterwards they met often and traveled together on a tour in the Hebrides (Scottish islands). Boswell made careful notes of what Johnson did and said and, after his death, wrote The Life of Samuel Johnson. This book, published in 1791, is perhaps the most famous biography in English and is still widely read. It is 600,000 words long-equal to ten novels.

In Frances Wilkins Six Great Scots