Category: Books
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How Many of Your Books Have You Read?
On New Year’s eve my parents-in-law came over to our place for lunch. When they were leaving and making their way to the door, passing one of our two bookcases, my wife’s dad said over his shoulder, “Where d’you get all the books?”“Bought them. Second hand. Over the past five…
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New Year Resolutions – James Boswell Style
I gave up making New Year Resolutions some years back because like most people I never stuck to them and often never even got started. I think for 2026, I’ll try a technique used by the young James Boswell, author of the great Life of Samuel Johnson (in short: To…
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Genius Fan’s Four Big Anniversaries for 2026
The coming year, 2026, is a big year to celebrate things that happened in 1776. That is, it’s a big year for 250th anniversaries, and I’m going to highlight four big ones. If you read history then it’s likely you’ll know these – they’re the ones everyone talks about. Here…
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6 Ways to Experience Boswell’s London Journal
Today is the 75th anniversary of the publication here in Britain of James Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763. It hit the bookshops on Monday 4 December 1950 and was an instant bestseller in UK and the USA. Readers loved it, hundreds of thousands of copies were printed and sold across both…
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London Spectators: Addison, Steele & Boswell
In 1748, at the age of seven, James Boswell was introduced to a character that would become one of his first role models: The Spectator, author of highly popular essays about people and society in London in the early years of the Eighteenth century. So when Boswell managed to wangle…
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Finally, My First Edition of Boswell’s London Journal
If one is going to celebrate the 75th birthday of Boswell’s London Journal, then one should jolly well do so with a first edition. That was my thinking a few months ago, but I’ve already got a few copies and shelf space is running low…so another volume? Yes, shuttup! Of…
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William Smellie’s Legacy – Beyond his Bookcase
Some months ago I discovered there was a collection of books from the Eighteenth century tucked away in the library at Lanark. I made arrangements to view it and spent two hours handling and leafing through books that had been collected more than 270 years ago. This is the library…
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Highlights from Smellie’s Book Catalogue
There I am, staring directly at an Eighteenth century book collection, arms length from titles someone in 1750 would consider a ‘must have’ in their home. This is William Smellie’s library, all 300+ volumes, half of which are reference works for a teaching physician and the other half…for leisure? Two…
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Dr Smellie’s Treatise and Anatomical Tables
When one first sees William Smellie’s personal library, an Eighteenth century collection of 300+ volumes, stacked nicely into 24 shelves…it’s a little overwhelming. It’s a lot of books. Yes, but it’s dwarfed by Sir Walter Scott’s personal library at Abbotsford House, near Melrose, for example. That’s huge and almost unreal,…
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William Smellie’s Early Career & Book Collection
Keys in hand, librarian Elena Focardi makes her way to the locked door protecting the precious and valuable books at Lanark Library. I’ve come to see a book collection that’s 275 years old – owned by the town’s famous Eighteenth century son, William Smellie. He bequeathed his book collection, after…
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Book Collection Explorer: William Smellie
The book collection of Eighteenth century doctor William Smellie lies behind a locked door one might mistake for a janitor’s closet. You walk up the stairs, across the lobby, through one room, through another room, to an inauspicious, but secure entrance, beyond which is a temperature and humidity-controlled room, conditions…
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Boswell’s London Journal: Friends, Women & Johnson
Quote: “The London Journal 1762-1763…is a unique publishing event: the appearance for the first time of a major work by one of the most famous English* authors more than a century and a half after his death.” (p.xiii, Publishers’ Note, London Journal 1762-1763, Ed. FA Pottle, 1950) * Note: Boswell…
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Happy 75th Birthday to Boswell’s London Journal
Happy Birthday to James Boswell’s “London Journal, 1762-63” – it’s 75 years old next month. Hurrah!! QUOTE: “The Eighteenth century in this one volume of the journal is expressed more patently than in nearly all the other contemporary letter-writers and fiction-makers of the period put together. And the artistry! Make…
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Sher’s Mighty Book about Books Leads the Way
There are a number of topics I want to write about in the Genius Fan blog, and while I was out dog walking this evening I thought to myself, ‘If I get run over and killed by a bus I’ll regret not having made the time to sketch and write…
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When a Book is a Cake with ‘Sublime Dumpiness’
‘Sublime Dumpiness’ is an aesthetic quality embodied in, among other things, pies, dogs, grandmothers…and books. It’s kind of rare, and you may never have seen it. You’ll know it when you’re confronted with it…as I did on Friday past, when my wife presented me with one of my favourite books…
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Revealing the Boswell-Johnson Pilgrims
The earliest account I’ve found of someone following in the footsteps of Boswell and Johnson’s great tour of Scotland in 1773 was that of the great Johnson scholar, George Birkbeck Hill (1835-1903). It’s called Footsteps of Dr Johnson (Scotland), it was published in 1890 and it’s a great big book…
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Most-Consulted Books Should be in Hardback
I own two books which through constant use and consultation are becoming increasingly raggedy, with spines I anticipate will split in 2026 accompanied by the sad ungluing of pages. In short: collapse. The books? To The Hebrides: Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and James Boswell’s Journal of a Tour…
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Three Days of Upheaval Just to Tidy Bookcases
My wife doesn’t appreciate the pleasure that goes with tidying and reorganising our (my) bookcases, so when the topic of redecorating the living room pops up…I know it’s a day of tidying, (putting all books into boxes) furniture moving, cleaning and prep, followed by a day of painting, then six…
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Boswell’s is Big, But Voltaire’s is Voluminous
Appendix 5 to James Caudle’s excellent article entitled Editing James Boswell, 1924-2010: Pasts, Presents, Futures shows the estimated number of volumes one should expect to find across an edition of a range of historical papers. He’s focused on the Scottish writer and lawyer James Boswell (1740-1795), and his appendix (not…
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Quarter Past Midnight: The Book Reading Sweetspot
Do you know what ‘stolen time’ is? It’s minutes or hours that you shouldn’t have, but manage to ‘half inch’ (pinch) or through a cancellation it ends up in your hands. In its unexpected nature, stolen time is rich in potential. And it has boundaries, a start and a finish,…
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Crane Required to Lift Birkbeck Hill’s Book
A big book is annoying when it doesn’t fit onto the bookcase, especially if it’s a volume one is particularly proud or fond of. This is the case with George Birkbeck Hill’s Footsteps of Dr. Johnson (Scotland). I have a copy. I had to adjust the height of one of…
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Choosing a biography of Flora Macdonald
Take a guess: How many biographies are there of Flora Macdonald? (My guess is at the bottom of this post.) She sealed her fame as one of Britain’s most romantic heroines when she chose to help Bonnie Prince Charlie evade capture by government soldiers in June 1746. He was on…
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Scottish Enlightenment? Herman: Yes! Porter: …no
Popular history authors Roy Porter and Arthur Herman have opposing views on whether or not there was a Scottish Enlightenment. American Arthur Herman says there was, and to back it up wrote a book called The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots’ Invention of the Modern World. British Roy Porter says there…
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Artifacts of Pre-Computer Library Book Borrowing
Ninety five per cent of the books I buy are second hand, and they often have marks of the previous owners – many of whom were libraries. The postie delivered a book the other day, The History of Scottish Literature Volume 2, 1660-1800, and when I opened the cover I…
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Book Facts Rather than Internet Facts?
Which do you trust more: Book facts or internet facts? When I began the Genius Fan blog my plan was to create illustrated stories based around: ‘James Boswell and his life and times in the Eighteenth century’. The objective was to reach like-minded fans of Boswell and the Eighteenth century.…
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Le Voyage de Boswell et Johnson aux Hébrides
I have a French language version of the combined accounts of Boswell and Johnson’s 1773 tour of Scotland, it’s called Voyage dans les Hébrides. My French isn’t good enough to fluently read this book (yet), but I’ve read the Boswell and Johnson accounts in English so I know the story…
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Scholar Donald Greene, Johnson Defender
I wrote a post a few months ago (Pick a Book, Any Book…) about the serendipity in making a casual selection from one’s bookcase. This post is a similar process, but focused on the outcome – the discovery of an important scholar: Donald Greene. I was dashing out the room…
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Laurence Sterne’s Mind Boggling Achievement
There are so many clever ways to start a blog post about Laurence Sterne. Here’s the Genius Fan method: “Never heard of Laurence Sterne? Stop what you’re doing RIGHT NOW, run – sprint if your knees will bear it – to the nearest book shop and buy a copy of…
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Rev Joseph Spence, a Bit Boswell-like
When you’re a James Boswell nut, like I am, you’re always looking for references to him in any book that covers his period – the second half of the Eighteenth century. I’ve got a copy of Arthur H Cash’s Laurence Sterne: The Later Years…wait now, turn to the index…yep, there…
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Finding Boswell in the Mitchell Library
This afternoon’s mission for an Eighteenth century experience ended in disappointment. And then satisfaction. I went to the Mitchell Library in Glasgow to see the collection known as the Private Papers of James Boswell from Malahide Castle in the Collection of Lt. Colonel Ralph Heyward Isham. (This privately funded and…
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Bookshelf variety over calf leather uniformity
Stand back, take in the view, row upon row of books on the shelves of Sir Walter Scott’s library. I was at his home in the Scottish Borders recently and I can tell you the library is at once breathtaking, stirring and impressive. Its true fascination lies in the individual…
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Cinema in the Eighteenth Century
Picture this: the year is 1772, you work as a farrier’s apprentice at a Darlington coaching inn, a lucky appointment because the owner of the inn allows you to read books from his little collection. That’s the year the innkeeper takes ownership of an edition of Oliver Goldsmith’s 1770 poem…
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A Quite Pointless Post About Book Heft
It’s a trivial pleasure, but discovering that a book you just bought has ‘next level’ heft is very satisfying…Look, I’ll keep this short. This post has been sitting in my drafts for weeks. I’ve rewritten the intro more than a dozen times. Why? Because: Who cares about the heft of…
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Bookcase For You, Bookcase For Me
We’ve been discussing buying a second bookcase, but where to put it is vexing us. The most obvious place for a new bookcase is the spot currently occupied by the exercise bike (which we use as a clothes drier) bought during Covid lockdown. There’s no direct sunlight and its away…
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Pick a Book, Any Book. Now Tell Me What It Is.
Let me tell you one of the great pleasures to be had in owning your own library (“It’s a bookcase for crying out loud! Not a library.”): I can pick a book off the shelves and, having forgotten that I had bought that volume, flick through its pages while stirring…
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Library Fantasists! Visit Sir Walter Scott’s Home
The world’s largest personal library – still intact – consists of more than 9,000 volumes and fills two rooms in Abbotsford House, near Melrose, Scotland. That’s the former home of the amazing best-selling Victorian author of the Waverley novels, Sir Walter Scott. It’s delightful to approach the building, with its…
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Coveting Two Eighteenth Century Best Sellers
If a bolt of lightning should strike me, leaving me dead, the person who discovers my smoking corpse (it’s always a dog walker) may notice the faintest smile on my blackened lips. If they’re perceptive they’ll read that smile as ‘satisfaction’ – and they’d be right for I now own…
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I Bought a Famous Book Printed in 1785
Yes, this site is about the Eighteenth century, but it’s also about book collecting…that is, books relevant to the, you guessed it, Eighteenth century. And it is to this hallowed conjunction of interests that I now turn my keyboard. On the dining room table where I write sits a package…
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Starting my James Boswell Collecting Habit
In summer 2021 I bought a set of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell. That was how my hobby of studying the Eighteenth century and book collecting kicked off. We didn’t have a bookcase back then, and the 14 volumes I collected sat stacked up on…
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‘Discovery’: The Best Way to Learn History
One of the many pleasures in learning about history and times past is ‘discovery’. By this I mean the process by which a person follows their interest and simply finds things out. I expect everyone has experienced that process. You can accumulate a great deal of knowledge on a subject…
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Bailyn’s Voyagers to the West
Let me direct you to a book illustration that transports me back in time to the Eighteenth century in a way few others do. Go to Bernard Bailyn’s 1986 book “Voyagers to the West: Emigration from Britain to America on the Eve of the Revolution”.
Genius Fan 