'Companionable Books-
Boswell's Life of Johnson '
TAMES BOSWELL, the son of a Scottish judge, came to London as a law student in 1763, and was introduced to Dr. Johnson, the Great Lexicographer, essayist, poet, scholar, and wit, and the Great Cham of letters of his time. Thenceforward Boswell attached himself assiduously to the great man, and, undeterred by his natural rudeness and his intense dislike for everything Scottish, succeeded ultimately in installing himself as the fidus Achates. The result was his
' Life of Johnson,' the most famous biography in the language, and the book that, more than his own works, is responsible for Johnson's fame to-day. Many critics, in fact, contend that, under the disguise of an industrious and unassuming compiler, Boswell was in reality a literary genius who drew his Johnson far more than life-size, and made of him a character far richer and more commanding than the original. Be that as it may, Boswell's ' Johnson ' remains one of the most fascinating books ever written, and without doubt one that cannot be omitted from any list of ' companionable books.'.