James Boswell

James Boswell was a Scottish lawyer, diarist, and biographer whose Life of Samuel Johnson became one of the most influential biographies in English. Boswell's Life of Johnson combines conversation, character study, literary history, travel detail, and social observation with a vivid sense of Johnson's presence. He is important for readers interested in biography, eighteenth-century Britain, literary friendship, and the art of recording a mind through scenes rather than summary vividly.