Conference examines the art of biography as practiced by Boswell and Johnson
On Friday, Jan. 27, the Whitney Humanities Center will host "Two Biographers: Johnson and Boswell," a one-day conference that will complement the 2006 Franke Lectures in the Humanities, a semester-long series of events celebrating the art of biography.
James Boswell's "Life of Johnson" has long been one of the most widely read biographies in the English language. The subject of that work, the 18th-century man of letters Samuel Johnson, was himself a biographer of the classical poets.
In recent decades, Johnson and Boswell have received less attention within the field of English literature than they enjoyed previously. As the home of the Boswell collection of papers, Yale is working to revive interest in their work. This goal is the primary purpose of the conference.
Guest speakers will include some of the leading Johnson and Boswell scholars: Jenny Davidson of Columbia University; Robert De Maria of Vassar College; James Basker of Barnard College; Elliot Visconsi, Claude Rawson, David Bromwich, Jane Levin and Harold Bloom of Yale University; and Ambassador Heyward Isham.
The conference is co-sponsored by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Whitney Humanities Center. It will begin at 9 a.m. and proceed all day through a late afternoon reception. It is free and open to the public. For more information, contact manana.sikic@yale.edu.
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