JOHNSON WITHOUT BOSWELL

Subtitled, A Contemporary Portrait, this is virtually a biography excerpted from writings of Johnson's time and from his own letters, reminiscences, meditations. The result is a more kaleidoscopic view of London's literary dictator than the Boswell biography gives:, -- his personality, his friendships and enmities, his career. It is an item for Johnson collectors, for here -- from numerous sources -- are brought together in chronological arrangement, the things that were said and written of him in his lifetime. Supplements rather than displaces.