This is an (as yet incomplete) list of books by or about Boswell. You can click on some of the titles to get further information about the book, its history and its current availability.

Books published by Boswell in his own lifetime

• A View of the Edinburgh Theatre (1760)
• Observations, Good or Bad... (1760)
• Elegy on the Death of an Amiable Young Lady (1761)
• Ode to Tragey (1761)
• The Cub at Newmarket (1762)
• Critical Strictures on the New Tragedy of 'Elvira' (1763)
• Letters Between Andrew Erskine and James Boswell (1763)
• Dorando, A Spanish Tale (1767)
• An Account of Corsica (1768)
• The Hypochondriack (1777-1783)
• Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)
• The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. (1791)

Boswell's journals and other papers

The following books compiled from Boswells journals, memos, sketches and correspondance have been published as Trade Editions, meaning that they are edited so as to enhance the reading experience of the general reader. His papers have also been published in Research Editions, which are generally much more expensive and includes all sorts of snippets, correspondence and entries that are probably only of use to a really serious researcher. The notes are great, however. The numbers in brackets are the publication years of the first Yale editions.

Yale Trade editions of Boswell's Journals

• Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763 (1950)
• Boswell in Holland 1763-1764 (1952)
• Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1763-1764 (1953)
• Boswell on the Grand Tour: Italy, Corsica, and France 1765-1766 (1955)
• Boswell in Search of a Wife 1766-1769 (1956)
• Boswell for the Defence 1769-1774 (1960)
• Boswell: The Ominous Years 1774-1776 (1963)
• Boswell in Extremes 1776-1778 (1970)
• Boswell, Laird of Auchinleck 1778-1782 (1977)
• Boswell: The Applause of the Jury 1782-1785 (1981)
• Boswell: The English Experiment 1785-1789 (1986)
• Boswell: The Great Biographer 1789-1795 (1989)

In addition to the journals two further Trade editions have been published

• Portraits, by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1952)
• Boswells' Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D., 1773 (1961)

Yale Research editions

• Correspondence of James Boswell and John Johnston (1966)
• Correspondence and Other Papers of James Boswell Relating to the Making of the L (1969)
• Correspondence of James Boswell with Certain Members of the Club (1976)
• Pride and Negligence: The History of the Boswell Papers (1982)
• Correspondence of JB with David Garrick, Edmund Burke, and Edmond Malone (1987)
• General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1766-1769, Volume 1: 1766-1767 (1993)
• Catalogue of the Papers of James Boswell at Yale University (1993)
• Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript vol. 1 (1994)
• Correspondence of James Boswell and William Temple 1756-1777 (1997)
• General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1766-1769, Volume 2: 1768-1769 (1997)
• Correspondence of James Boswell with James Bruce and Andrew Gibb (1998)
• Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript vol. 2 (1999)
• General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1757-1763 (2006)
• The Journal of His German and Swiss Travels, 1764 (2008)

Biographies

• Brady, Frank. (1984). James Boswell: The Later Years 1769-1795.
• Finalyson, Iain. (1984). The Moth and the Candle.
• Martin, Peter. (1999). A Life of James Boswell.
• Pottle, Frederick A.. (1966). James Boswell: The Earlier Years 1740-1769.
• Vulliamy, C. E.. (1932). James Boswell.
• Wyndham Lewis, D. B.. (1946). The Hooded Hawk.
• Quennell, Peter. (1945). Four Portraits - Studies of the 18th Century

Additional Boswell litterature

This list is far from complete, but is updated when I come across intereseting books on the subject.

• Delaney, Frank. (1993). A Walk to the Western Isles.
• Lustig, Irma S.. (1995). Boswell: Citizen of the World, Man of Letters.
• Pottle, Frederick A.. (1981). Pride and Negligence.
• Rogers, Charles. (1874). Boswelliana.
• Sisman, Adam. (2000). Boswell's Presumptuous Task.
• Smith-Dampier, J. L.. (1935). Who's Who in Boswell.
• Werkmeister, Lucyle. (1963). Jemmie Boswell and the London Daily Press.

• Letters of James Boswell (1924). Published by Oxford University Press. Available online at Questia, The Internet's Largest Library.

Where to get it

Most of Boswells papers are out of print, but a few of his writings are available as E-texts online, and others can often be found at used book sellers on the net. I have bought most of my Boswell related books through Abebooks, a used books search engine. If you click the link below, and order your books through Abebooks, I will receive a 3% commission, which will help me maintain this site and perform further research.

Search tips: Most editions of the published papers are edited by Frederick Pottle (the only Yale edition he didn't edit is the last one, Boswell: The Great Biographer, edited by Marlies Danziger and Frank Brady). Try searching for either Pottle or James Boswell in the author field, or Boswell in the title and/or keyword field. You can also try writing the exact titles, of course, but they are not always correctly named in the search index.