James Boswell, the Journals in Scotland, England and Ireland, 1766-1769

This volume, the second volume in the Research Edition series of journals in Scotland, England and Ireland from the autumn of 1766 to May 1769.
The journals covered by the volume record much of Boswell's life as a young advocate during the first few years of his practice at the Scottish bar. The journals also record much information about Boswell's composition and publication of his instant best-seller, Account of Corsica, his involvement as a volunteer for the Douglas camp in the great Douglas Cause and his search for a wife. During Boswell's visits to London and Oxford in 1768, he produced some of his finest journal-writing, including details of memorable and significant conversations with Samuel Johnson. The manuscript journals in the volume have been printed to correspond to the originals as closely as is feasible in the medium of print.

Hugh M. Milne worked as a solicitor in Scotland from 1977 to 2007, latterly as Solicitor (Scotland), HM Revenue & Customs and worked as a Strategic Leader in the Large Business Service, HM Revenue & Customs, from 2007 to 2011, when he retired. He published Boswell's Edinburgh Journals 1767-1786 (Mercat Press, 2001), a reading edition of the journals kept by Boswell while practising in Edinburgh as an advocate. A revised edition was published by Mercat Press in 2003, and a further revised edition was published by Birlinn's imprint John Donald in 2013. He prepared a two-volume annotated edition of manuscript and printed legal papers drafted by Boswell in cases in which he first became involved during the period July 1766 to November 1769. Those two volumes, which encompass the same period as is covered by the present volume, were published as The Legal Papers of James Boswell (Stair Society 2013 and 2016).