Books: Bozzy at His Best

BOSWELL FOR THE DEFENCE: 1769-1774 (396 pp.)—Edited by William K. Wimsatt Jr. and Frederick A. Pottle—McGraw-Hill ($6.95).

"I have a constant plan to write the life of Mr. Johnson," noted the young man. "I have not told him of it yet, nor do I know if I should tell him."

The remark calls up many an obligatory movie scene about the crucial creative moment in the lives of great artists (Wench: "What's troubling you, Will?" Shakespeare: "Oh, nothing, I'm just a little sicklied o'er ... I think I shall go home and write Hamlet"). But in this instance, the offhand remark is real;...