 On 16 December 1784, St. James's Chronicle stated Hawkins and Boswell were both writing biographies. However, Thomas Tyers published before them when his A Biographical Sketch of Dr Samuel Johnson, the first postmortem biographical work on Johnson but not a full length biography, ran in the December 1784 issue of the The Gentleman's Magazine. This did not deter Hawkins and by 21 December 1784, he began advertising his "authentick" life of Johnson. This provoked an anonymous articles in St. James's Chronicle started attacking Hawkins: "It is evident from the Conduct of the late Dr. Johnson, that he designed Mr. Boswell for the sole Writer of his Life. Why else did he furnish him with such Materials for it as were withheld from every other Friend ... Little indeed did he suppose that a Person whom he had made one of his Executors would have instantly claimed the Office of his Biographer. Still less could he have imagined that this Self-Appointment would have been precipitately confirmed by the Booksellers."
