For two centuries, scholars have considered the ephemeral writing of James Boswell - his periodical writing, his pamphlets, and his broadsides - unworthy of serious critical attention because it is too topical, too superficial, or too trivial to advance our study of Boswell or his literary career. This volume challenges that assessment.
Boswell and the Press: Essays on the Ephemeral Writing of James Boswell is the first sustained examination of James Boswell’s ephemeral writing, his contributions to periodicals, his pamphlets, and his broadsides. The essays collected here enhance our comprehension of his interests, capabilities, and proclivities as an author and refine our understanding of how the print environment in which he worked influenced what he wrote and how he wrote it. This book will also be of interest to historians of journalism and the publishing industry of eighteenth-century Britain.