Dr. Samuel Johnson (1791)

Greatest biography written bar none. Captures the nature of the man better than anything since. I wouldn't call it the best model for writing a biography, but it still is the finest one ever written. Never surpassed. ( )

Boswell, a 22-year-old lawyer from Scotland, first met the 53-year-old Samuel Johnson in 1763, and they were friends for the 21 remaining years of Johnson’s life. From the beginning, using a self-invented system of shorthand, Boswell kept a record of Johnson’s conversations. The record was important, for apart from Johnson’s achievements as a journalist, a poet, a lexicographer, and an author, he was a forceful, witty talker.

Boswell, himself a superlative reporter, often asked Johnson questions that appeared naive or ignorant in order to prompt his subject to make statements worth preserving. Such conversations and statements make up the bulk of the biography. ( )

The stages of reading Boswell's Johnson thus far:
1) Believing Johnson was a genius.
2) Knowing Johnson was an idiot.
3) Shipping Johnson and Boswell.

The moment Boswell meets Johnson is electric.

I'm having so much fun with this one, Johnson is quite often extremely relatable: "I always feel an inclination to do nothing" (p. 268). Going to take a nice break before tackling volume 2. ( )

A nice little abridged version from the 50s suitable for traveling in both its time and ours. ( )

2 v. ( )