James Boswell
Author
1740 – 1795
Who was James Boswell?
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, was a Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh. He is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson, which the modern Johnsonian critic Harold Bloom has claimed is the greatest biography written in the English language.
Boswell's surname has passed into the English language as a term for a constant companion and observer, especially one who records those observations in print. In A Scandal in Bohemia, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes affectionately says of Dr. Watson, who narrates the tales, "I am lost without my Boswell."
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- Born
- Oct 29, 1740
Edinburgh - Also known as
- Τζέιμς Μπόσουελ
- Босуэлл, Джеймс
- 詹姆士·包斯威爾
- Parents
- Children
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Great Britain
- Profession
- Education
- University of Glasgow
- University of Edinburgh
- Utrecht University
Law
(1763 - 1764)
- Lived in
- East Ayrshire
- Edinburgh
- Died
- May 19, 1795
London
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"James Boswell." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/james_boswell>.
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