James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

James Boswell was born in Edinburgh in 1740, the son of an Ayrshire laird and lawyer. His father wanted him to follow him into the law, and he attended Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities. However, he preferred a literary career and ran off briefly to London in 1760. On a later visit in 1763, he met the key figure in his life, and replacement father figure, Samuel Johnson. He studied law in the Netherlands, and travelled extensively on the continent. He married in 1769 and had six children, settling in London. He toured Scotland with Johnson in 1773 but his account of the tour was not published until 1784. His best known publication is his Life of Samuel Johnson, maybe the greatest biography ever written in English. He died in 1795.