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James Boswell
Sign in to saveAlso known as James Boswell I, James, I Boswell
Scottish lawyer, diarist and author (1740–1795)
OverviewAI-generated
James Boswell (1740–1795) was a writer whose literary output includes *Life of Johnson*, *Boswelliana*, and *An ode to tragedy*. His body of work also encompasses *Guía literaria de Londres*, *A collection of original poems*, and his commonplace book. Records indicate he has 765 works associated with his name, with specific counts of 14 works listed in one database and 5 in another.
Boswell is the subject of 856 other encyclopedia articles. His writings include observations such as, “I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically,” and “The best good man, with the worst natur'd muse.” He is also quoted as saying, “Boswell is pleasant and gay, For frolic by nature designed.”
Synthesized by Vinony from 18 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Last.fm, Europeana Sparql, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Open Library, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
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
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- James
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Kingdom of Great Britain
- Place of birth
- Edinburgh
- Place of death
- London
- Occupation
- biographer
- Educated at
- Utrecht University
- Employer
- University of Edinburgh
- Languages spoken
- French
- Notable work
- The Life of Samuel Johnson
- Image
- James Boswell of Auchinleck.jpg
Show 11 more facts
- date of death
- 1795-01-01
- Commons category
- James Boswell
- Commons Creator page
- James Boswell
- archives at
- Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
- name in native language
- James Boswell
- topic's main category
- Category:James Boswell
- writing language
- English language
- nickname
- Bozzy
- date of birth
- 1740-01-01
- P12749
- Prince Oskar of Prussia
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
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.