James Boswell: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Oct. 25, 2026

Facts

Born	October 29, 1740 • Edinburgh • Scotland
Died	May 19, 1795 (aged 54) • London • England
Notable Works	“An Account of Corsica, The Journal of a Tour to That Island; and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli” • “The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides” • “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”

Photos

Boswell, detail of an oil painting from the studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1786; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

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Elizabeth Mavor

British author

Allan Cunningham, detail of a portrait by Henry Room; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Allan Cunningham

Scottish poet

Evelyn Waugh, photograph by Mark Gerson, 1964.

Evelyn Waugh

English author

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Sir Harold Nicolson

British diplomat and author

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

British statesman and author

Evelyn, oil painting by Robert Walker, 1648

John Evelyn

English author

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Sidney Colvin

English scholar

British prime minister Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

prime minister of United Kingdom

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

British writer

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

English artist

William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt

British writer

Southey, detail of a pencil and watercolour portrait by R. Hancock, 1796; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Robert Southey

English author

Portrait of novelist Frances Burney

Frances Burney

British author

Bennett, Arnold

Arnold Bennett

British author

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Penelope Fitzgerald

British author

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Andrew Motion

British poet and author

Novelist Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

English writer

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Sir Isaiah Berlin

British historian

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A.L. Rowse

British historian and writer

Novelist Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark

British writer