Boswell

Boswell
   , BOSWELLIZE
   James Boswell (1740-1795) has been regarded as the foremost biographer in English literature. His great masterpiece was The Life of Samuel Johnson, the great compiler of the English dictionary. Thomas Macaulay ranked the biography first among biographies of all time. Boswell was born in Edinburgh and educated there and in Glasgow, and the University of Utrecht in Holland. He met Johnson (1709-1784) in 1763 and became such a devoted admirer that his life was shaped around Johnson. Boswell toured the Hebrides with Johnson and published the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, L.L.D. Ten years after the men met, Johnson arranged for the admittance of Boswell into the Literary Club that Johnson had founded. There Boswell was introduced to some of the greatest minds of England: Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and David Garrick. The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) was not published until seven years after Johnson's death.
   Boswell inherited a substantial estate, which enabled him to do as he liked. And what he liked were matters of questionable morality. He was a man of intemperate habits, and it is said that his vanity often took him to the point of absurdity.
   A biographer is often called a Boswell, and from Boswell's name has come the verb Boswellize, meaning "to write a hero-worshiping biography."

Dictionary of eponyms. . 2013.

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  • Boswell — Boswell, OK U.S. town in Oklahoma Population (2000): 703 Housing Units (2000): 377 Land area (2000): 0.686245 sq. miles (1.777367 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.010697 sq. miles (0.027706 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.696942 sq. miles (1.805073 sq.… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Boswell's, St. —    BOSWELL S, ST., a parish, situated in the district of Melrose, county of Roxburgh, 4 miles (S. E.) from Melrose; containing, with the village of Lessudden, 747 inhabitants. This place derives its name from its church, which is supposed to have …   A Topographical dictionary of Scotland

  • Boswell, IN — U.S. town in Indiana Population (2000): 827 Housing Units (2000): 361 Land area (2000): 0.474389 sq. miles (1.228662 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.474389 sq. miles (1.228662 sq. km) FIPS code …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Boswell, OK — U.S. town in Oklahoma Population (2000): 703 Housing Units (2000): 377 Land area (2000): 0.686245 sq. miles (1.777367 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.010697 sq. miles (0.027706 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.696942 sq. miles (1.805073 sq. km) FIPS… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Boswell, PA — U.S. borough in Pennsylvania Population (2000): 1364 Housing Units (2000): 681 Land area (2000): 0.736424 sq. miles (1.907329 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.736424 sq. miles (1.907329 sq. km)… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Boswell —   [ bɔswəl], James, schottischer Schriftsteller, * Edinburgh 29. 10. 1740, ✝ London 19. 5. 1795; bereiste 1764 66 den Kontinent, wo er u. a. Voltaire und Rousseau begegnete; war dann Rechtsanwalt in Edinburgh (bis 1783); begleitete 1773 Samuel… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Boswell — (spr. Baß nell), 1) James, geb. 1740 in Edinburg; studirte in Glasgow u. in Holland, durchreiste 1764 Europa u. st. als Advocat 1795 in London; er schr.: Account of Corsica, Glasg. 1768, 3. A., Lond. 1769 (deutsch Lpz. 1769); Journal of a tour to …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Boswell — Boswell, 1) James, engl. Schriftsteller, geb. 29. Okt. 1740 in Edinburg, gest. 19. Mai 1795 in London, war von seinem Vater, Richter am schottischen Obertribunal, für den Advokatenstand bestimmt, studierte anfangs in Edinburg und Glasgow, begab… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Boswell — Boswell, James, engl. Schriftsteller, geb. 29. Okt. 1740 zu Edinburgh, gest. 19. Mai 1795, Freund Samuel Johnsons, von dem er eine meisterhafte Biographie lieferte. – Vgl. Fitzgerald (1891). – Sein Sohn Sir Alexander B., geb. 1775, gest. 26. März …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

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