Boswell

BOSWELL, James, English writer, the biographer of Samuel Johnson: b. Edinburgh, 29 Oct. 1740; d. London. 19 May 1795. He was the son of a Scotch judge, Lord Auchin leek, who took this title from the name of his estate. He was educated at Edinburgh and at Glasgow, and early displayed literary tastes. In 1763, when on a visit to London, he was introduced to Johnson, and though this first meeting was not very hopeful for the future, a warm friendship soon sprung up between them. During a year spent on the Continent, he made the acquaintance of Voltaire, Rous seau and other prominent men of the day. Returning in 1766 he was admitted an advo cate, but the practice of his profession was little to his taste. In 1768 he published a his tory of Corsica, with a lively account of his own experiences in the island. The same year he again met Johnson in London, and his in tercourse with him was kept up by many sub sequent visits to the metropolis; while Johnson himself came to Scotland in 1773, when the pair made their famous journey to the Heb rides. This year also Boswell became a mem ber of the famous Literary Club, with various members of which, such as Burke and Rey nolds, he was on terms of intimacy. In 1769 he had married, but he continued mainly de pendent on his father till the latter's death in Ina when he succeeded to the estate. In 1784 he met Johnson for the last time at a dinner at Sir Joshua Reynolds'. Two years after (1786) came out his of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D.) (Johnson's own account of the tour had ap peared in 1775). Having latterly been admitted to the English bar, he went on circuit and held for a year or two the recordership of Carlisle; and from 1788 onward he mostly resided in London. In 1791 appeared his of John son,' a work which he had been long preparing, and which at once gave readers the same de light as it has ever since inspired. A second and enlarged edition came out in 1793. By

this time Boswell's health had greatly suffered from his too convivial habits, and he died in London, having been a widower since 1790.

Boswell was a singular compound of sense and folly, of genuine ability and foible border ing on craziness. His good nature was uni versally admitted; his vanity and want of self respect and self-control were his most evident faults. His weaknesses were easily seen, but the man who enjoyed the sincere affection of Dr. Johnson and the enduring friendship of Burke and Reynolds had better stuff in him than appeared to the superficial observer. His life of Johnson is such a masterly performance as only a genius for life-portraiture could have produced. Among editions of the Life may be mentioned that of Croker (10 vols.) and those of Rev. A. Napier (Bohn's Standard Library, 6 vols.), and Dr. Birkbeck Hill (Clar endon Press, 6 vols.), all containing the Tour.

See JOHNSON, BOSWELL'S LIFE OF. Consult Macaulay's essay, and the much more humane and penetrating essay by Carlyle. Consult also his 'Life) by Fitzgerald (London 1891) ; Rogers, (ib. 1874) ; Bissell, 'Boswell as a Biographer) (New York 1905). Boswell left two sons. The elder, ALEXAN DER, born in 1775, succeeded to the family estate, sat for a year or two in Parliament and was created a baronet in 1821. He wrote several well-known Scottish songs and various other things in verse and prose, and also set up a private press from which issued reprints of rare old works in the Auchinleck library. In 1822 he met his death in a duel with a Mr. Stuart, against whom he had made some severe attacks in a political journal. JA em, the second son, born in 1779, died in 1822, was the editor of an improved edition of Malone's Shakespeare, generally known as the Shakespeare' (21 vols., 1821).