John Boswell

John Eastburn Boswell (March 20, 1947 – December 24, 1994) was a prominent historian and a professor at Yale University. Many of Boswell's studies focused on the issue of religion and homosexuality, specifically Christianity and homosexuality.

His first book, The Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century, appeared in 1977. In 1994, Boswell's fourth book, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, was published, but he died that same year from AIDS-related complications.

Early life

Boswell was born in Boston, Massachusetts the son of Colonel Henry Boswell, Jr. and Catharine Eastburn he studied at the College of William & Mary, where he converted to Roman Catholicism.

Career

A medieval philologist, Boswell read or spoke seventeen languages, including Catalan, German, French, Old Church Slavonic, Ancient Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Akkadian, Armenian and Latin. Boswell received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1975 and joined the Yale University history faculty, where his colleagues included John Morton Blum, David Brion Davis, Jaroslav Pelikan, Peter Gay, Hanna Holborn Gray, Michael Howard, Donald Kagan, Howard R. Lamar, Jonathan Spence, and Robin Winks. Boswell was made full professor in 1982, and A. Whitney Griswold Professor History in 1990.

John Boswell (publishing-business figure)

John Boswell (born 1945) is a book packager, literary agent, and author in New York City.

He was the subject of a New York Times article on book packaging, which described it as coming up with the idea for a book, writing a proposal, and finding a writer.

Two books he co-wrote, French for Cats (1992, with Henry Beard) and O.J.'s Legal Pad (1995, with Henry Beard and Ron Barrett), have reached the New York Times Best Seller list. On some book jackets, he also takes credit for co-writing the number-1 bestseller What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, although the only listed author is Mark H. McCormack.

Boswell was also a producer of Leslie Nielsen's Stupid Little Golf Video and appears in it as an "unsuspecting golfer".

References

Symphony of Science

The Symphony of Science is a music project created by Washington-based electronic musician John D. Boswell. The project seeks to "spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through musical remixes." Boswell uses pitch-corrected audio and video samples from television programs featuring popular scientists and educators. The audio and video clips are mixed into digital mashups and scored with Boswell's original compositions. Two of Boswell's music videos, "A Glorious Dawn" and "We are All Connected", feature appearances from Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and Stephen Hawking. The audio and video is sampled from popular science television shows including Cosmos, The Universe, The Eyes of Nye, The Elegant Universe, and Stephen Hawking's Universe.

Unruly Media, a video tracking service, first charted "A Glorious Dawn" on September 21, 2009. A month later, the video had received more than a million views and was ranked in the music category on YouTube as one of the top rated videos of all time. On November 9, 2009, Third Man Records released a 7-inch single of "A Glorious Dawn" for the 75th anniversary of the birth of Carl Sagan.

John Boswell (disambiguation)

John Boswell (1947–1994) was a historian, professor and writer.

John Boswell may also refer to:

John Boswell (freemason)

John Boswell, 3rd Laird of Auchinleck (1532?–1609), was a Scottish gentleman. He is considered by some scholars to be the first recorded non-operative Freemason.

Biographical details

Boswell was the son of David Boswell and Janet Hamilton. In 1562 he married Christian Dalzell, and appears to have remarried Katharine Stewart in 1580.

In 1591 Boswell was accused in the Privy Council of Scotland of practicing witchcraft, sorcery and enchantments, consulting with witches and taking part in other devilish activities. Boswell's response to these allegations was to flee the country.

Freemasonry

Boswell's signature and mark are found on the records of a meeting of the Lodge of Edinburgh held at Holyrood on 8 June 1600. According to many masonic historians, this was the earliest authentic record of a non-operative (or accepted) Mason attending a Masonic Lodge. There are others, however, who disagree. It is not clear in what capacity Boswell was in attendance at this meeting. It was not an ordinary masonic meeting of the lodge, but a trial of its Warden 'Jhone Broune'. While it is possible that he was there as a member (or an honorary member) of the lodge, it is also possible that he was there only as counsel for prosecution or defence (or for some other reason), and was not a member of the lodge at all. There is no evidence of his initiation in the lodge on that occasion or any other occasion, and the meeting of 8 June 1600 was the only occasion to which Boswell’s connection with the masonic Craft can be traced.