Nah, not at all. There are plenty of examples of fighters getting a late start in boxing and went on to become champions and successful fighters.
Go to a gym, it's pretty scary at first to turn up at a boxing gym but if you try and learn yourself to box you'll only end up with bad habits all over the place
Going to a gym first is always the best choice because 1, you get to see up front what you're really getting yourself into, and 2, trying to "train" on your own will only ingrain bad habits into your movements that have nothing to do with the fundamentals of boxing you'll have to master.
thats not a newbie question its common sense i thought want to box = boxing gym want to swin = swimming pool want to play golf = golf course
You could start by purchasing a cpl of boxing dvd's (I kow there are 2 on the everlast site) then after a few weeks joing a gym.