Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1763

In 1762 James Boswell, then twenty-two years old, left Edinburgh for London. The famous Journal he kept during the next nine months is an intimate account of his encounters with the high-life and the low-life in London. In it Boswell tells of his struggle for independence from his family; he talks of his developing friendship with Samuel Johnson; he describes taverns, playhouses, and coffee houses he frequented; and he relates conversations he had with figures such as the poet James MacPherson and the actor David Garrick. The Journal, frank and confessional as a personal portrait of the young Boswell, is also revealing as a vivid portrayal of life in eighteenth-century London. 'Boswell's London Journal', with its useful introduction, scholarly notes, and extensive index, was first published in 1950 to high acclaim and has since become a classic in the field.