Boswell, James

Boswell, James (1740-1795), Scottish writer, who became a close friend and biographer of the writer Samuel Johnson. Boswell was born in Edinburgh, and educated at the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Utrecht. Boswell was admitted to both the Scottish and English bars and practised law but devoted himself primarily to the pursuit of a literary career. His most important early work was Account of Corsica (1768), a sympathetic study of the struggle for independence of that island, written after an extended tour of Europe.

In 1763 Boswell had met the writer Samuel Johnson, and from 1772 until Johnson's death in 1784 the two men were closely associated. In 1773 Boswell was admitted to Johnson's Literary Club, which included the statesman Edmund Burke, the writer Oliver Goldsmith, the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the actor David Garrick. Thereafter, Boswell devoted much of his time to compiling detailed records of Johnson's activities and conversation. Boswell's accounts covered periods of daily association with Johnson in London and also described a trip that the two friends made through Scotland to the Hebrides in 1773. After the death of Johnson, Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) and The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) were published. Boswell is best known for the latter work, which is generally considered a masterpiece of biography.

In 1927 an extensive collection of Boswell's letters, notes, and journals was discovered at Malahide Castle in Ireland. Yale University acquired these papers in 1949, and under its auspices they were prepared for scholarly publication in 18 volumes. Several volumes, beginning with Boswell's London Journal (1950), have been edited for general readership; one of these is Boswell: The Applause of the Jury, 1782-1785 (1981).