The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age

Recognizing his friend Samuel Johnson's need for company, artist Joshua Reynolds suggested that they meet with a few friends each Friday night at the Turk's Head Tavern on Gerrard Street in London. In February 1764, the Club, which still exists, began with an initial membership of nine. Over the next 20 years, until Johnson's death in 1784, it would consist of many of Britain's leading writers, thinkers, and politicians, including Edmund Burke and Oliver Goldsmith (original members), Johnson's biographer James Boswell (elected 1773), Whig leader Charles James Fox (elected 1774), economist Adam Smith (elected 1775), and playwright and parliamentarian Richard Brinsley Sheridan (elected 1777). Damrosch (Harvard Univ.; Eternity's Sunrise: The Imaginative World of William Blake) presents extended biographies of Johnson and Boswell, mingled with shorter sketches of the group's other members. While this book offers no new information, as Johnson observed, "Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed," Damrosch's account reminds readers why this circle of creativity continues to fascinate.