Boswell did indeed contract venereal diseases many, many, times, but there's no evidence that syphilis was among them. And few would say that Johnson was his only friend. His schoolmates William Johnston Temple and John Johnston of Grange, at the very least, stuck with him for life. But this essay's general thesis can't be denied: Boswell loved people and could not tell a lie about anyone he ever met.
I feel like there's a great Boswell movie waiting to be made.
This makes me want to revisit Boswell's London Journal. I got an old paperback for fifty cents at a used bookstore but haven't read through it yet. Ars longa, vita brevis. Might bring it with me to England & read it on the plane.
Boswell did indeed contract venereal diseases many, many, times, but there's no evidence that syphilis was among them. And few would say that Johnson was his only friend. His schoolmates William Johnston Temple and John Johnston of Grange, at the very least, stuck with him for life. But this essay's general thesis can't be denied: Boswell loved people and could not tell a lie about anyone he ever met.
I feel like there's a great Boswell movie waiting to be made.
This makes me want to revisit Boswell's London Journal. I got an old paperback for fifty cents at a used bookstore but haven't read through it yet. Ars longa, vita brevis. Might bring it with me to England & read it on the plane.