The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-10-05
GREATEST OF BIoGRAPHERs.

Hundreds of biographies and auto
biographies have been published since
Boswell's work first saw the light of day.
From time to time some monumental I'M
dertaking, such as Strachey's "Life and
Times Of Queen Victoria" is hailed as a
milestone, marking a new height in biog-
raphical writing, but Boswell continues to
hold his own, at an eWinence which none
of his successors have ever reached.
Fate conspired to bring Boswell and
DR.. johnson together. DR.. johnson, as
a photographer and man of letters, would
have enjoyed limited degree of fame,
but many man has welded pen to bet
ter purpose. Without the aid of Boswell
in putting into an imperishable record
the personality of johnson and the con-
versational powers on which his reputa-
ton mainly rests, the qualities that make
johnson towering figure in literature
would have been lost to posterity. Bos-
well, born biographer and just enough
of that hero worshiper, if not the sycho-
plant, to give him an extraordinary zeal
in the performance of his task, preserved
DR.. johnson for all time and set the man
himself up, a forceful, arresting person.
atty, for the delectation of succeeding
generations.
True lovers of Boswell and of Johnson
have no patience with critics who assert
that Boswell fawned upon Johnson and
licked the boots of the great man for
reasons of vanity, because Boswell wished
to be seen in the company of a celebrity
and to move in that distinguished society
adorned by Burke, Reynolds, Goldsmith,
Sheridan and David Garrick 1t is i'm
possible to read Boswell alphabetically
md not be struck by his sincere admira-
)n--nay, his idolatry-of the man whose
every word and gesture he sought to per-
petuate, and succeeded in doing so to
an astonishing degree. No other human
being has ever had a more meticulous
record made of his life, his converse
ton, the very secrets of his soul, than
has DR.. johnson in the pages of Bos-
well.
Not only is Johnson revealed to US
as he was in life, with such faults Of
judgment and of conduct as not even a
biographer frankly biased in his favor
could conceal, but his associates appear
before us in vivid colors, their charac-
tiers etched in epigram and anecdote.
The literary life of the day, as it re-
volved around johnson and took its cue
lEOIu IlliHS 40 uSPACkcu Will rare dCCuIaSS
and zest.
Boswell was not highly regarded by
his associates, with the exception of
johnson, who perceived and appraised
at it's true value the loyalty of his de-
voted followers. Boswell inspired in some
of those with whom he came into con-
tact and who did not understand the germ
of greatness that lurked in the little
Scotsman, feeling of contempt. But
the man who was least suspected by any
of the personages with whom he was on
terms of greater or less intimacy of ever
becoming famous, is known the world
over, while most Of the men and women
who had we'll defined notion of their
own Importance in Boswell's day have
sunk into obscurity or oblivion. Such is
the price the world sometimes places on
a labor of love, worthily performed. 1t
is not likely that we shall ever have an
other such combination in literature as
Johnson and Boswell. They are unique
in the ages. BECAUSE both were great
and one served as the complement of the
other they rank among the immortals.