The Enduring Work of Biography: James Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1791-2020

ISBN 10: 1644534320 / ISBN 13: 9781644534328

Published by University of Delaware Press, 2026

About this Item

2026. hardcover. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9781644534328

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Enduring Work of Biography: James Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1791-2020
• Publisher: University of Delaware Press
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1644534320
• ISBN 13: 9781644534328
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The Enduring Work of Biography seeks to revitalize appreciation of Boswell’s great biography for a new generation of scholars, students, and general readers. Engaging accessibly and informatively with biographical, historical, critical, and textual matters and drawing on the Yale Edition of the Private Papers of James Boswell, Enduring Work discusses Boswell’s collaboration with others (both alive and dead) in researching, writing, revising, proofing, publishing, and promoting his biography of Johnson. Central to Boswell’s concept of life writing is memory, and Enduring Work highlights both its dynamic and collaborative force in the Life of Johnson. This collection is book-ended by an introduction that considers the critical reception of the Life of Johnson and an epilogue that suggests its continuing critical insight and relevance. A closing chapter and two appendixes survey the history of the Life of Johnson as a best-selling book for over two centuries, an extraordinary collaboration between readers and publishers and between Boswell and Johnson themselves that is still evolving. 

About the Author

GREG CLINGHAM is a British literary scholar and publisher. He was Professor of English at Bucknell University, where he held the NEH Chair in the Humanities and the John P. Crozer Chair of English Literature, and was, for twenty-three years, the director of Bucknell University Press.