Boswell, James. The biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson, born in Edinburgh, showed early a penchant for writing and an admiration for literary men. He fell in with Johnson on a visit to London in 1763, and conceived for him the most devoted regard; made a tour with him to the Hebrides in 1773, the "Journal" of which he afterwards published. Settled in London, and was called to the English bar. Succeeded in 1782 to his father's estate, Auchinleck, in Ayrshire, with an income of £1,600 a year. Johnson dying in 1784, Boswell's "Life" of him appeared seven years after, a work unique in biography, and such as no man could have written who was not a hero-worshiper to the backbone. He succumbed in the end to intemperate habits, aggravated by the death of his wife. Born 1740, died 1795.

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