James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 – 19 May 1795), was a
Scottish biographer and diarist, born in
Edinburgh. He is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure
Samuel Johnson, which the modern Johnsonian critic
Harold Bloom has claimed is the greatest
biography written in the English language.