Scottish Authors > James Boswell Biographer, Diarist & Travel writer 1740-1795

Boswell was born in Edinburgh on 29th October 1740, the eldest son of Alexander and Euphemia Boswell. His father was an Ayrshire laird and advocate who, on appointment to the Court of Session in 1754, took the judicial title of Lord Auchinleck.

Boswell studied at Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities, his father intending him for a career as an advocate, although his own ambitions were for a literary or a military career. He ran off to London in 1760 and was received into the Roman Catholic church. He was persuaded that this James Boswell conversion, which would have precluded public office or professional advancement, was unwise and after a taste of the wilder side of London life returned home to his studies and continuing tension with his father. Eventually, in 1762, he was permitted to pay an extended visit to London, where he made full use of his freedom, overindulging in drink and sex. However in Davies's bookshop in May 1763 he met the man who was to become the central figure in his life - Samuel Johnson. Their opening conversation was unpromising:

Boswell: "Mr Johnson, indeed I come from Scotland, but I cannot help it."

Johnson: "Sir, that, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help."

In 1763 Boswell was sent to study law at Utrecht and then travelled widely on the Continent, meeting Voltaire and Rousseau, introducing himself as:

"A Scots gentleman of ancient family"

He visited Corsica, meeting the Corsican leader General Paoli. In 1768 he published An Account of Corsica (1768) which won him an international reputation. His legal career progressed satisfactorily although he was torn between the attractions of London and his attachment to Scotland:

"I have a kind of idea of Scottish patriotism that makes me think it a duty to spend my money in my own country."

In 1773 he and Johnson made an extensive tour of the Scottish Highlands. Both men wrote accounts of this journey, Boswell's Journal of a tour to the Hebrides appearing in 1784. Between 1777 and 1783 he contributed to the London Magazine. In 1791 he published his masterpiece - the Life of Samuel Johnson, generally considered as the greatest English-language biography.

In 1769 Boswell married his cousin, Margaret Montgomerie, had six children, and succeeded to the family estate in 1782. He was called to the English Bar in 1786 and settled in London. He died in London on 19th May 1795 and is buried in the family vault at Auchinleck.

Boswell's reputation, until this century, was as Johnson's biographer and he is often dismissed as being simply the Doctor's sycophantic disciple. Boswell's difficult relationship with Alexander Boswell probably resulted in Johnson becoming a father-figure, but his portrayal of Johnson in the Tour and the Life is wellrounded and objective. The modern publication of Boswell's diaries, remarkable for their scope, self-awareness and frankness, revealed a fascinatingly complex character and placed Boswell among the great diarists and auto-biographers.

Brian D Osborne

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