The Gad About Town

James Boswell described an evening of Dr. Samuel Johnson’s nightly conversation in the pubs in this way: “His mind resembled the vast ampitheater, the Colisæum at Rome. In the center stood his judgement, which like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict, he drives them back into their dens; but not killing them, they were still assailing him.”

Boswell met Dr. Johnson for the first time on this date in 1763. Boswell spent two decades in Johnson’s company; they traveled together, dined together, hung out. Boswell was not an un-busy man himself: he was a lawyer, a man about town, an alcoholic and a romance addict (two children out of wedlock; five children with his wife). And he wrote all the time. Every evening, no matter how much he ate and drank that day, no matter how little he slept the night before, he wrote. Twelve volumes of his diaries have been published on top of his biography of Samuel Johnson and his accounts of travels he took, with and without Johnson.
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Forever – is composed of Nows –
‘Tis not a different time –
Except for Infiniteness –
And Latitude of Home –
 
From this – experienced Here –
Remove the Dates – to These –
Let Months dissolve in further Months –
And Years – exhale in Years –
 
Without Debate – or Pause –
Or Celebrated Days –
No different Our Years would be
From Anno Dominies –
—Emily Dickinson, “Forever – is composed of Nows,”a portion of which is seen in her handwriting, above.

Emily Dickinson died 130 years ago today.
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