HAD Johnson and Boswell never met, or had their first meetings gone sour (they were the sort of sensitives who often detest one another immediately), English letters would he very different. To be ...

Boswell was determined “to tell the whole truth about his subject, to portray his lapses, his blemishes, and his weaknesses as well as his great qualities,” says Adam Sisman, a winner of the 2001 ...

LET us pause to observe how adroitly Mr. F. V. Morley has performed the task of editing and abridging Boswell’s “Life of Samuel Johnson” and “The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides,” reducing both to ...