George Steevens critiqued a work of this type that was announced weeks after the publication of a similar work by Thomas Tyers. That work of this type was by John Hawkins. A diary of “table talk” called the Thraliana informed a work of this type by Hester Thrale. A work of this type describes the freed Jamaican slave Francis Barber and an oyster-fed cat named Hodge. Involuntary tics described in works of this type led to a posthumous Tourette’s diagnosis for their subject, who in one of these works kicks a stone to refute George Berkeley’s idealism. The most famous work of this type was built off of the earlier travelogue The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. For 10 points, name this type of work, one of which by James Boswell details days in the life of the British author of a 1755 Dictionary. ■END■
ANSWER: biography of Samuel Johnson [prompt on biography (by Boswell) by asking “of whom?”; accept Life of Samuel Johnson; accept Dr Johnson in place of “Samuel Johnson”]
<British Literature>
= Average correct buzz position