JAMES BOSWELL, 9TH LAIRD OF AUCHINLECK

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project James Boswell

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

October 29, Wednesday (Old Style): James Boswell was born near St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland as the 1st son (and therefore the heir under the rule of primogeniture) of Lord Auchinleck. Before the Edinburgh High School, he would be educated by private tutors. When he would become interested in Catholicism, his father would insist upon his remaining a Presbyterian and he would obey his father. When he would become interested in a career in the military, his father would similarly dissuade him.

1740

8th Laird of Auchinleck

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

James Boswell “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

James Boswell began to study arts at the University of Glasgow. He would switch to the study of the law.

Samuel Johnson contributed essays to The Adventurer series. For a brief period he considered remarrying, presumably with Claire Hill Boothby (1708-1756).

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

1753

James Boswell “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

James Boswell wrote to a friend:

You are tempted to join Rousseau in preferring the savage state.I am so at times. When jaded with business, or when tormentedwith the passions of civilized life, I could fly to the woods.

(During this year action figures would be savagely killing one another deep in the American woods, at Fort William Henry.)

1757

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

As early as this point, James Boswell was known to be keeping a journal. Already he had publications, in several periodicals. Already he had contracted gonorrhea and already he had fathered at least one illegitimate child.

In this year Samuel Johnson was beginning his series of essays for The Idler. He published ON THE BRAVERY OF THE COMMON ENGLISH SOLDIER. He continued to be in financial difficulties, and at one point only a last-moment loan from a friend prevented his being again arrested for debt.

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD?— NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES.

LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

1758

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project James Boswell

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

James Boswell moved from the big bold city of London back into his father’s home in Scotland, it being perceived that he needed to be in a supervised setting in order to persist in the study of the law.

WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MINDYOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF

1761

James Boswell “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

James Boswell returned from Scotland to London.

Samuel Johnson began to receive an annual pension from the crown. Having earlier characterized pensioners in his Dictionary as state hirelings and traitors to the country, he greeted this new personal situation with apprehension. He was, however, reassured by being advised that such pensions were in recognition of past service to the nation rather than in expectation of service yet to be provided.

According to one account the sandwich originated at this point, at the Beef Steak Club above the Covent Garden Theatre in London. John Montagu, 4th earl of Sandwich, was on a roll and had been at the gaming table for a full 24 hours without stopping to eat, when he ordered the help to bring him some slabs of meat between slices of bread — so as not to get the cards all greasy.

Joanna Baillie was born in Bothwell.

Launcelot Greaves, by Tobias Smollett.

The Shipwreck, Falconer.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

1762

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project James Boswell

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

At the age of 23, James Boswell met Dr. Samuel Johnson and, while studying at the University of Utrecht, also met Marie Arouet de Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Johnson, age 53, was just publishing his THE LIFE OF ASCHAM and ACCOUNT OF THE IMPOSTURE OF THE COCK-LANE GHOST.

At about this point William Guthrie (with the assistance of Ralph Bigland) prepared A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEERAGE; FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES. ILLUSTRATED WITH ELEGANT COPPERPLATES OF THE ARMS OF THE NOBILITY, BLAZONED IN THE HERALD’S OFFICE, BY THE PROPER OFFICERS; COPPERPLATES OF THE PREMIERS IN THEIR PARLIAMENTARY ROBES; AND AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE HISTORY OF EACH FAMILY, VIGNETTES AND OTHER ORNAMENTS PROPER FOR THE SUBJECT. Although he invited the noble personages, whose noble ancestors were glorified in this worshipful work, to correct any insufficiencies of laudation before the pages were committed to the press, this work is nevertheless marked by a lack of any great involvement in accuracy. The battle of Dettingen, for instance, a historical event of some significance to the illustrious ancestors of the dukes of Cumberland and Marlborough in particular, is reported in one place to have gone down in 1744, in another to have gone down in 1742 — whereas works of history are strongly united in averring that this event had gone down in 1743. For another instance, King George IId is reported to have left Hanover for Aschaffenberg on June 16th only to arrive at his destination on June 10th, something which would only be possible were the journey, of 227 miles, to have required longer than one year. For yet another instance, the House of Peers is reported to have addressed His Majesty the King on the subject of the battle of Culloden on August 29, 1746 despite the fact that, as of that date, England had been in between one Parliament and another.

May 16, Monday: At the bookstore of Thomas Davies in London, Dr. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell met for the 1st time.

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

1763

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project James Boswell

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

1764

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

The initial volume of William Guthrie’s A GENERAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD, FROM THE CREATION TO THE PRESENT TIME; INCLUDING ALL THE EMPIRES, KINGDOMS, AND STATES, THEIR REVOLUTIONS, FORMS OF GOVERNMENT, LAWS, RELIGIONS, CUSTOMS AND MANNERS, THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING, ARTS, SCIENCES, COMMERCE, AND TRADE. TOGETHER WITH THEIR CHRONOLOGY, ANTIQUITIES, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, AND CURIOSITIES OF NATURE AND ART, BY WILLIAM GUTHRIE, ESQ., JOHN GRAY, ESQ., AND OTHERS, EMINENT IN THIS BRANCH OF LITERATURE (this 12-volume set would continue into 1767).

“The Club” was formed, with 54-year-old Dr. Samuel Johnson and 41-year-old Sir Joshua Reynolds and 34-year-old Oliver Goldsmith as charter members. Eventually this group would come to include Joseph Banks, James Boswell, Edmund Burke, Charles Burney, Charles James Fox, David Garrick, Edward Gibbon, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Adam Smith, and William Windham (it would not include William Guthrie).

Goldsmith’s AN HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN A SERIES OF LETTERS FROM A NOBLEMAN TO HIS SON.

AN HISTORY OF ENGLAND

AN HISTORY OF ENGLAND

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

James Boswell was admitted to the Scottish bar. Practicing law would allow him to make frequent trips back to London for purposes of debauchery, although it would not afford him the sort of income that would allow him to make these trips as often as he would like. In addition there was the expectation that he would send his children to expensive boarding schools. Eventually, with his coming into his inheritance upon the death of his father, he would be able to move his family back to London and undertake fewer cases at law.

CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

1766

James Boswell “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

February: During a visit to the library of King George III, Dr. Samuel Johnson encountered the monarch himself. During the conversation (according to Boswell) the monarch “expressed a desire to have the literary biography of his country ably executed.”

The Reverend Joseph Priestley’s THE HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE OF ELECTRICITY, which would later be translated into Dutch, French, and German. Completing his study of electricity, he would begin working with “mephitic air” (air containing carbon dioxide). This work with different kinds of air would lead to the discovery of “dephlogisticated air,” which is to say, oxygen.

1767

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

James Boswell got married with Margaret Montgomerie, a first cousin. The union would produce seven children of whom five would survive to adulthood. Margaret would persist in a general disapproval of the mode of life of her husband up to the point of her death.

1769

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

Over the strong objections of various members of “The Club,” James Boswell was accepted into membership. He would be devoting himself to a record of the actions and side comments of Dr. Samuel Johnson during the final period of his life.

August 18, Wednesday-November 22, Monday: Dr. Samuel Johnson, age 63, and James Boswell toured Scotland.

1773

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was to become the subject of James Boswell’s THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D., actually himself wrote a record of his own life, but in the presence of his servant Francis Barber he had destroyed this writing. When Boswell read to him an evaluation in the Critical Review in this year, placing Julius Caesar’s account of his actions in one category, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus’s reflections on his life in a second category, and Huetius’s contexture of the times of his life in a third category, in contradistinction to all these “journalists, temporal and spiritual: Elias Ashmole, William Lilly, George Whitefield, John Wesley, and a thousand other old women and fanatic writers of memoirs and meditations” in a quite derogatory separate category, Johnson commented that few writers have “gained any reputation by recording their own actions.”

December 27, Saturday: Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote to James Boswell: “This is the time of year in which all express their good wishes to their friends, and I send mine to you and your family. May your lives be long, happy, and good.”

1777

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

When Alexander Boswell, 8th Laird of Auchinleck, died, James Boswell came into his inheritance as the 9th Laird of Auchinleck and finally was able to ease off on his taking cases at law and move his family back from Scotland to London — where he could indulge as much as he liked in dissipation and society!

1782

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

8th Laird of Auchinleck

9th Laird

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

James Boswell’s wife, who was generally disapproving of his preferred way of life and had thus been somewhat cramping his style, at this point died of tuberculosis.

1783

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

December 13, Monday: Samuel Johnson died.

1784

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

James Boswell, in his JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES, remarked “A page of my Journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.”1

An example of the contents: “I happened to ask where John Knox was buried. Dr. Johnson burst out, ‘I hope in the high-way. I have been looking at his reformations.’” Some would be offended at his detailed and uncensored account of such conversations — a real gentleman simply wouldn’t have chatted and told in such manner.

1785

1.We can find in contemporaneous issues of the London Chronicle advertisements for this “solid broth” packaged for the nourishment of gentlemen “on journeys and at sea.”

JOURNAL OF A TOUR

SAMUEL JOHNSON

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi’s ANECDOTES OF THE LATE SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. DURING THE LAST TWENTY YEARS OF HIS LIFE (mark up your scorecard please: Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi had been during Dr. Johnson’s life his bosom friend Hester Thrale).

1786

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

Sir John Hawkins’s LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

1787

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

James Boswell’s THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D., one of the two most successful biographies in the English language to date, which in the course of two centuries would never be out of print:2

Dr. Johnson was quoted by Boswell as having remarked “I am willing to love all mankind, except an American.” James Ferguson Conant has remarked this in his essay “Cavell and the Concept of America” (CONTENDING WITH STANLEY CAVELL, ed. Russell B. Goodman, Oxford UP, 2005, page 55):

Is there, as President Woodrow Wilson thought, an internalrelation between the concept of America and a certain ideal? Oris it that, as Chesterton thought, there is nothing the matter

1791

2. This would be, however, the only endeavor at which Boswell would ever be really successful.

“Come in!” And Mr. Laurence’s gruff voice sounded gruffer than ever, as Jo tapped at his door.

“It’s only me, Sir, come to return a book,” she said blandly, as she entered.

“Want any more?” asked the old gentleman, looking grim and vexed, but trying not to show it.

“Yes, please. I like old Sam so well, I think I’ll try the second volume,” returned Jo, hoping to propitiate him by accepting a second dose of Boswell’s JOHNSON, as he had recommended that lively work.

LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

with Americans except their ideals? Or does America stripped ofits ideals amount to nothing more than President Coolidge’s viewof the matter? Or is there a distinction to be drawn, as WaldoEmerson thought, between the ideal and its debasement by thosewho most loudly proclaim it?

(deathmask)

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

May 19, Tuesday: In London, James Boswell died after a prolonged bout of solitary inebriation.

Johns Hopkins was born on the tobacco plantation “Whitehall” in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. (His great-grandparents Margaret Johns and Gerard Hopkins had named a son Johns Hopkins, which name was being passed on to a grandson.) His parents were Friends Samuel Hopkins (1759-1814) of Anne Arundel County, and Hannah Janney (1774-1864) of Loudon County, Virginia.

1795

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE BEAUTIES OF CHESTERFIELD, CONSISTING OF SELECTIONS FROM HIS WORKS. BY ALFRED HOWARD, ESQ. Stereotyped at the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry, published by Charles Ewer of No. 141 Washington Street, Boston. This little volume would be in the personal library of Henry Thoreau and we may wonder what benefit he derived from reading the advice of a lord whose advice was that one should never be guilty of so undignified a thing as laughing in public.

James Boswell had recorded a remark Dr. Samuel Johnson made about Lord Chesterfield:

This man (said he) I thought had been a Lord among wits;but I find he is only a wit among Lords!

1828

BEAUTIES OF CHESTERFIELD

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

December: In Henry Thoreau’s journal for this month we find an indication that he had at least a passing familiarity with James Boswell on Dr. Samuel Johnson:

December: If his fortune deserts him, the brave man in pity still abides by her. Samuel Johnson andhis friend Savage, compelled by poverty to pass the night in the streets, resolve that they will stand by theircountry.

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others,such as extensive quotations and reproductions ofimages, this “read-only” computer file contains a greatdeal of special work product of Austin Meredith,copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials willeventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup someof the costs of preparation. My hypercontext buttoninvention which, instead of creating a hypertext leapthrough hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems—allows for an utter alteration of the context withinwhich one is experiencing a specific content alreadybeing viewed, is claimed as proprietary to AustinMeredith — and therefore freely available for use byall. Limited permission to copy such files, or anymaterial from such files, must be obtained in advancein writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo”Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Pleasecontact the project at <Kouroo@kouroo.info>.

1839

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project James Boswell

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over untiltomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.”

– Remark by character “Garin Stevens”in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

Prepared: May 11, 2014

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by ahuman. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested thatwe pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of theshoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What thesechronological lists are: they are research reports compiled byARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term theKouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such arequest for information we merely push a button.

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obviousdeficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored inthe contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then weneed to punch that button again and recompile the chronology —but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary“writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of thisoriginating contexture improve, and as the programming improves,and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whateverhas been needed in the creation of this facility, the entireoperation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminishedneed to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expectto achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring roboticresearch librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge.Place requests with <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. Arrgh.

JAMES BOSWELL JAMES BOSWELL

HDT WHAT? INDEX