James Boswell

James Boswell was born in Edinburgh in 1740, the eldest son of a Scottish judge, Lord Auchinleck. He studied law at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Utrecht, though he longed for the excitement of London. In 1763, in the back room of a London bookshop, he met the writer Samuel Johnson, author of the great Dictionary of the English Language, and the two became close friends despite their differences in age and temperament. Boswell traveled through Europe, meeting Voltaire and Rousseau, and visited Corsica, where he befriended the independence leader Pasquale Paoli; his Account of Corsica (1768) made him famous. He practiced law in Edinburgh and later London, but his career was not very successful. In 1773 he and Johnson toured the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides together. Boswell kept detailed journals all his life, recording conversations almost word for word. After Johnson's death he used these notes to write The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), often called the greatest biography in English. Boswell's own journals were rediscovered in the twentieth century. He died in London in 1795.

James Boswell is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: As a young man, after meeting Catholics in Glasgow, he resolved to become a Catholic priest. Source: Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900) (via Wikisource)