James Boswell

Author

1740 – 1795

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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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