James Boswell | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1785 | |
| Born | 29 October 1740 (N.S.)[1] Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 19 May 1795 (aged 54) London, England |
| Occupation | Lawyer, diarist, biographer |
| Alma mater | |
| Notable works | Life of Johnson |
| Spouse | |
| Children |
|
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (/ˈbɒzwɛl, -wəl/; 29 October 1740 (N.S.)[1] – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, Life of Samuel Johnson, which is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language.[2][3] A great mass of Boswell's diaries, letters, and private papers were recovered from the 1920s to the 1950s, and their publication by Yale University has transformed his reputation.
- ^ a b Here "N.S." (New Style) means the date is given in the Gregorian calendar, for consistency with the remainder of the article, even though Scotland used the Julian calendar until 1752.
- ^ Root, Douglas (2014). "Two 'Most Un-Clubbable Men': Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, and Their Social Circles". In Baird, Ileana (ed.). Social Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century: Clubs, Literary Salons, Textual Coteries. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. p. 256. ISBN 978-1443866781. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
- ^ Rollyson, Carl, ed. (2005). British Biography: A Reader. New York: iUniverse. p. 77. ISBN 0595364098. Retrieved 30 July 2017.