James Boswell

 Born on the 29th of October, 1740 in Edinburgh

  Died on 19 May 1795 in London and was buried in the family vault at Auchinleck Churchyard on 8 June 1795.
 A Scottish biographer, lawyer, and man of letters.
  He is best known as the biographer of Samuel Johnson.
  Invented the art of modern biography
  Famous as the author of the Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), perhaps the most celebrated biography in
the English language. 
The life of Samuel Johnson

 The most famous and most beloved biography in the English language.

 Valued as both an important source of information on Johnson and his times, as well as an important work of
literature.
  Published in 1791
 Often considered to be one of the finest pieces of biographical writing in the English language.
 The work was from the beginning a critical and popular success, and represents a landmark in the development
of the modern genre of biography.
 Since first publication it has passed through hundreds of editions and, on account of its great length, many
selections and abridgements.

Summary
Johnson is born in 1709 in Lichfield, England; his parents belong to the middle class and are both “well advanced in
years” (27) when Johnson is born. Johnson is often sick as a child and has scrofula (a form of tuberculosis), which
affects the appearance of his face and causes weak eyesight, something that will affect him for the rest of his life.
However, he also quickly begins to show signs of exceptional intelligence, memorizing some of the contents of the
Book of Common Prayer. Johnson excels in school and begins to write poems and translations from Latin verse
when he is 16. However, his academic future remains in doubt because his father, a bookseller, is deeply in debt.

Johnson enrolls at Oxford University in 1728, where he honed his skill in Greek and Latin and in writing poetry.
However, after three years at university, Johnson runs out of money and is forced to return home without a degree.
Back home in Lichfield, Johnson goes through a period of physical and mental anguish. He tries to become a
schoolteacher but is rejected because he does not have a degree. When he is finally accepted as a teaching assistant,
he is soon forced to leave the school after an argument with the headmaster. With the help of his friend Thomas
Warren, a book publisher, Johnson begins producing translated and annotated books.

After Warren’s death, Johnson marries his widow, Elizabeth, who is 20 years his senior. Johnson continues to
support his new family with his translation work and with tutoring the children of local prominent families. In 1735,
Johnson opens a private school which fails soon after, taking with it a significant portion of Elizabeth’s fortune.
However, one of Johnson’s students, David Garrick, travels to London to become an actor. He invites Johnson to
join him there and helps him secure work writing for The Gentleman’s Magazine.

Johnson’s contributions to the magazine include an allegorical poem, London, which earns him praise and
comparisons to England’s leading poet, Alexander Pope. Around this time Johnson also finishes a play, the
historical tragedy Irene, which Garrick eventually produces on the stage in 1749. Johnson’s reputation as a brilliant
writer grows by leaps and bounds, and he makes the acquaintance of many of the famous intellectuals of the time,
including David Hume, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Oliver Goldsmith. He also earns the reputation of an eccentric,
due to the tics that are probably symptoms of Tourette syndrome, and has periods of depression.

Boswell explains his intention to depict Johnson’s complete life, and so does not shy away from writing about his
illness as well as some of the more ludicrous or less flattering aspects of his personality. He says he did not set out
to write only praise about Johnson, but to show the entirety of his life, the good and the bad.

In 1746, some publishers pitch to Johnson the idea of writing a complete dictionary of the English language.
Johnson surprises them by saying that he wants to complete the book on his own instead of with a team of scholars.
Johnson works on the Dictionary for eight years with the help of a small secretarial staff, and it is finally published
in 1755.
In anticipation of the publication of the Dictionary, Oxford University awards Johnson an honorary degree. In
addition, when George III accedes to the British throne, he awards Johnson a pension which allows him to live
comfortably for the rest of his life. In return, Johnson writes occasional pamphlets supporting the government’s side
in controversial political topics. During this period Johnson also publishes the allegorical novel Rasselas, Prince of
Abyssinia, and The Rambler, a collection of his magazine essays.

Boswell meets Johnson in 1763, and they form an instant friendship. Boswell sees Johnson whenever he is in
London on business, and the two men enjoy frequent conversation and meals together, often in the presence of the
other members of the Literary Club which Johnson forms in 1764. In 1773, Johnson travels to Scotland to visit
Boswell at home, and the two men take a tour of the country which is recounted in two separate works by Boswell
and Johnson.

By the 1770s, Johnson is showing signs of deteriorating health but continues to work; his later productions include
an annotated edition of the works of Shakespeare and the ten-volume Lives of the English Poets. In 1783, Johnson
has a stroke and momentarily loses his ability to speak, although he is still able to write about his Melancholy and
Fear of Death.

Style and Techniques

 Narrative technique
 Recording
 Observation

The Life of Samuel Johnson Background

The Life of Johnson reflects an important period in British literature, commonly known as the Augustan age.
The Augustan age is variously described as running through the first half of the 18th century and sometimes
as lasting until the 1780s. Writers in this period, like Johnson, were shaped by their classical education.
Steeped in the Greco-Roman literary classics and learned in the original languages, they sought to imitate
them in English prose and verse. For this reason, this period is commonly described as neoclassical; the
term “Augustan” originally referred to a period in Roman literature during the reign of the emperor
Augustus Caesar. British writers of the 18th century saw themselves as emulating this period of Roman
literature, using many of its forms and styles of expression as adapted into English. Alexander Pope was the
major poet of this period, and Jonathan Swift and Samuel Johnson represented its aesthetics in the prose
essay.

Significance
The book has dealt with significant contemporary criticism as to its methodology. The biography encompasses
the entirety of Johnson's life. And even though Boswell did not meet Johnson until the latter was 54, Boswell
conveyed Johnson's "life-scenes" as if he had been present, mixing fact and fantasy. Boswell is also known to
have edited some of Johnson's quotes and omitted any anecdotes that would have reflected poorly on his
character. It is widely agreed among contemporary critics, that The Life of Johnson revolutionized the genre
of biography. Its unique stylization leads some to call it a series of diary entries or a table-talk more readily
than they do a biography. This, combined with Boswell's clear fondness for and familiarity with the subject of
the book, resulted in a final product that showed bias, but was more personal and joyous than other
biographies. This led to immediate critical and popular success, easily becoming Boswell's most famous work
and cementing him as a central figure in the development of modern literary practice. 

Conclusion
Boswell concludes the book by expressing his view that Johnson's works and reputation will endure.