Boswell's Edinburgh Journals: 1767-1786 - Softcover

Boswell's diaries, written while he was a practising advocate in Edinburgh, describe the high and low life of the Scottish capital. James Boswell's diaries, written while he was practising as an advocate in Edinburgh between 1767 and 1786, provide a vivid picture of the high and low life of the Scottish capital. A friend of philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, Boswell also mixed with the criminal classes, was a prodigious drinker and frequented the town's brothels. Each day he wrote down all that he had done and seen with complete frankness.

James Boswell (1740-1795) eldest son of Alexander Boswell (who became a highly respected Scottish judge as Lord Auchinleck), was born and primarily raised in Edinburgh. He studied at Edinburgh University from 1753-1759, then at Glasgow University. In 1760 he ran away briefly to London, forming an unfulfilled desire for a commission in the Guards. Later, he studied law at home for about two years under his father's guidance. Whilst in London from 1762/1763, he met Samuel Johnson. He studied law at Utrecht during the winter of 1763/1764 and from 1764 to 1766 toured Europe. Returning to Scotland in 1766, he was admitted advocate and commenced practice at the bar. He became internationally famous in 1768 as the author of 'An Account of Corsica'. In 1769 he married his cousin, Margaret Montgomerie, by whom he had five children who lived to adulthood. For nearly twenty years he was a busy advocate, appearing in notable criminal trials and important civil cases, incluuding! appeals to the House of Lords. In 1785 he published his 'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides'. The following year he moved to London, where he wrote 'The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)'. For much of his life he kept detailed journals, and is regarded as one of the greatest of all diarists.

Hugh M. Milne, the editor, is a resident of Edinburgh and he has spent many years researching the background of these journals. His introduction and notes remove the barriers that time has placed between Boswell and ourselves, and contain much new material and information, particularly about Boswell’s legal and Scottish background. The result is a book in which an extraordinary personality lives before us upon the page.