James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, (1740 - 1795) was a Scottish biographer, predominantly known for his biography of Samuel Johnson, the prominent English literary figure, and Boswell's contemporary. Cultural references to the significance of Boswell's work include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in which Sherlock compliments Dr. Watson: "I am lost without my Boswell."
Boswell published a variety of journals and travel guides, before researching, accompanying Johnson, and writing his most popular biography, Boswell's Life of Johnson, which includes The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D (1785), and The Life of Samuel Johnson, appropriately subtitled: "Comprehending an account of his studies and numerous works, in chronological order; a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published: The whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great-Britain, for near half a century, during which he flourished."
