This volume serves as a comprehensive finding aid designed to navigate the extensive private correspondence, journals, and personal records of James Boswell. The work provides a systematic index for researchers and scholars attempting to locate specific entries, names, and events within the vast collection of Boswell's papers. By organizing these primary source materials, the index facilitates a more efficient examination of 18th-century social and literary life as documented by one of history's most prolific diarists.

Scholars and historians regard this index as a foundational tool for any serious study of James Boswell's life and work. The text is highly technical in nature, serving primarily as a reference utility for academic researchers rather than a narrative biography.