408Z Spring 2026 Dictionary Johnson and the Infamous Mr. Boswell

408Z  Dictionary Johnson and the Infamous Mr. Boswell
Four sessions
Instructor: Beth Lambert
Thursdays, 11:50—1:15, Mar. 26—Apr. 16
Never were two men more unlike in significant ways than Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) and James Boswell (1740-1795). Johnson wrote the first English dictionary, was one of the most distinguished intellectuals in English history, reveled in good conversation, and did not suffer fools at all. Boswell, twenty-years his junior, immortalized Johnson in his biography, Life of Johnson. His biographical technique—warts and all—set the standard for writing modern biography. Boswell also immortalized himself in the thirteen volumes of his journals, bits and pieces of which made it into the public sphere during his lifetime. His father, given a sample of a journal entry, threatened to disown him. The story of the journey of the Boswell papers from Scotland to Yale’s Beineke Library reads like a mystery/adventure tale. We will read Johnson’s novella Rasselas, a sample of Bosell’s journals, and learn the history of the Boswell papers. You will not be bored.
Beth Lambert is professor emeritus of English at Gettysburg College where she taught courses on Johnson and Boswell, as well as many other writers in the 18th century Britain. Her biography of Edmund Burke was published by the University of Delaware Press.