 This has been largely eclipsed, except for specialists, by the far longer and more colourful work (with the same title) published by James Boswell four years later.But Hawkins had known Johnson about twice as long as Boswell, since the 1740s, and his work, from which Boswell freely pillaged, covers some aspects of Johnson much better.Hawkins was more attuned to Johnson's strongly religious nature, and was with Johnson when he died, unlike Boswell who had been in Scotland for some months.