Editorial: In Defense of Johnson And Boswell

Why read any other biography of Samuel Johnson other than Boswell’s? Well to get the other side of the story. Perhaps, there was much more to Samuel Johnson than the picture Boswell paints. Subsequent biographers have pointed out all of Johnson’s foibles the depression, the bad disposition, the meanness, the rudeness etc. And many also have pointed out his literary greatness as well. And he certainly wasn’t pretty. But still none of these biographies, and many are good, approach the greatness of Boswell’s “Life of Samuel Johnson.” Boswell’s Life of Johnson is one of the few books that should be read by everyone. In terms of showcasing Johnson’s mental force, his wit and his wisdom none excels Boswell’s. Besides being a seminal work in the development of biography it’s considered by many to be the best biography written. Yet by modern day standards some scholars such as Edmund Wilson believe it isn’t biography at all, but merely a collection of entries in Boswell’s diary. And it is. We know that Boswell changed and edited many of Johnson’s quotations, yet still the force of Johnson’s or perhaps Boswell’s wit and wisdom comes through. Did Boswell create a myth? Undoubtedly, but what emerged in “The Life of Samuel Johnson,” be it a total creation, an embellishment, or an actual rendering, is an essential kernel of truth and wisdom that pervades reality. Somehow Boswell through the foibles of his human vessel was able to give us a clearer vision of reality. Am I drawing too much from this work? Maybe, but read it, gauge your overall impression, see if it moves you, see if you are not a better person when you have finished. Most likely you will look at the world a bit differently, perhaps with a fuller view of character, meaning and the daily vagaries of life. What is rendered in Boswell’s Life is a clear vision of human experience delivered via a profusion of entertaining conversation. It is a consummate masterpiece still read almost 220 years after its creation, and rightly so. Those critics, and there have been many, who criticize its structure, organization or veracity have a point but miss the point. The mechanics of the work are not the reality, but the message. Thomas Carlyle said it best referring to The Life of Johnson”, it is the “best possible resemblance of a Reality; like the very image thereof in a clear mirror". Read it.