File:James_Boswell_of_Auchinleck.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
James Boswell
Sign in to saveAlso known as James Boswell I, James, I Boswell
Scottish lawyer, diarist and author (1740–1795)
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1740
- Died
- 1795
- Works
- 765
Top works
- Guía literaria de Londres
- An ode to tragedy
- Memorial for the trustees of the deceased Charles Cochran, esq; of Culross, defenders, against the magistrates and town-council of the borough of Culross, pursuers
- Life of Johnson
- Boswelliana, the commonplace book of James Boswell
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 18
- Total plays
- 157
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (29 October 1740 – 19 May 1795) was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson, which contemporary 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 (Boswell, Boswellian <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/James+
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews
· 2021 · cited 84,647x
- Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations
· 1976 · cited 68,217x
- Fiji: an open-source platform for biological-image analysis
· 2012 · cited 66,769x
- SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python
· 2020 · cited 36,423x
- Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach.
· 1988 · cited 31,702x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “Boswell is pleasant and gay, For frolic by nature designed; He heedlessly rattles away When company is to his mind.”
- “I jumped up on the benches, roared out, "Damn you, you rascals!", hissed and was in the greatest rage. [...] I hated the English; I wished from my soul that the Union was broke and that we might give them another battle of Bannockburn.”
- “'Sir,' said Mr Johnson, 'a lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge.'”
- “I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.”
- “The best good man, with the worst natur'd muse.”
- “Influence must ever be in proportion to property; and it is right it should.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1740-10-29 ) 29 October 1740 ( N.S. ) , Edinburgh , Scotland
- Died
- 19 May 1795 (1795-05-19) (aged 54), London, England
- Occupation
- Lawyer diarist biographer
- Education
- University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow Utrecht University
- Years active
- 1762–1791
- Notable works
- Life of Johnson
- Spouse
- Margaret Montgomerie ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1769 ; died 1789 )
- Children
- 7, including Alexander and James
via Wikipedia infobox
Works in European collections
14 objects attributed to James Boswell, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~25 min read
Encyclopedic overview
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (/ˈbɒzwɛl, -wəl/; 29 October 1740 (N.S.) – 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. 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 significantly elevated his standing among modern scholars.
Early life
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “James Boswell” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.