Joshua Reynolds James Boswell, 1785
© National Portrait Gallery, London
(1740-1795)
'...then we went out to Dempster's
and dined... I said I wanted to get rid of
folly and to acquire sensible habits.
They laughed.'
Boswell's London Journal
Boswell is best known as the author of The Life of Samuel Johnson 1791. Born in Scotland, and having trained initially as a lawyer, he stayed in London in 1762-3 and decided to become a writer. He met Samuel Johnson in 1763. His London journal shows his determination to sample all the delights of life in the capital, which he visited frequently, spending much time with Johnson. Reynolds got to know Boswell in the early 1770s, though they did not become especially close until after Johnson's death in 1784.