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Book Details
Long title
Jemmie Boswell and the London Daily Press, 1785-1795

Author(s)

Year of 1st publication
1963
Book description

This 54-page dissertation was written by Lucyle Werkmeister and published by the New York Public Library in 1963. It deals entirely with Boswell's relationship to the London press in the last ten years of his life, or rather, with the press' conception of Boswell.

Werkmeister's dissertation contains reprints of some contemporary reviews and stories about Boswell, including the anti-Boswell satire Lesson in Biography; or How to Write the Life of One's Friend, with the telling subtitle (An Extract from the LIFE of DR. POZZ, in ten volumes folio, written by JAMES BOZZ, Esq; who FLOURISHED with him near fifty years), published in the Public Advertiser a month and a half after the publication of the Life of Johnson. (p. 32)

Boswell certainly was abused by the press for the greater part of his last 10 years, as is underlined by this quote from the World: "No man is honoured with more abuse than JEMMY BOSWELL - and no man, to do him justice, seems to value it less. He would not give an old Sand for all they can say.". (p. 48)

The dissertation is very well researched and a most recommendable - if somewhat depressing - read to Boswellians, as it includes a lot of material which is not to be found in even the most authoritative Boswell biographies.

Availability

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