Genius Fan

Discovering Scottish Philosopher Dr James Beattie.

Often, in these little blog posts I’m trying to understand the pleasure I get in reading about historical figures. In this one I got a surprise in spotting a familiar name in an unexpected place and then a sense of connection, of completion, when I consult books to reveal a picture of social connections I was unaware of. This is how it went. Between the Wars (aye, World War I and World War II), Aberdeen university librarian Dr Douglas Simpson passed on a tip about the existence of unpublished papers belonging to the Eighteenth century Scottish poet Dr James Beattie. The year was 1929-30. The suggestion landed in the ear of Aberdeen university lecturer Claude Colleer Abbott, who followed the tip to Fettercairn House, south west of Aberdeen. Within an hour of arriving Abbott realised he’d discovered a far bigger prize – a trove of papers related to the famous James Boswell. (See my post Boswell Papers Found at Fettercairn.) Among the papers was Boswell’s ‘lost’ London Journal 1762-63, a discovery of gigantic significance. Meanwhile Beattie almost dropped off my radar. Almost. I was struck by the fact Beattie kept a diary during a visit to London he made in 1773. An interesting coincidence: two contemporary Scots men, both called James, both recorded their activities during a visit to London, both of which have been published. An interesting coincidence, I thought.

Then more than a year later, out of nowhere, Beattie’s name jumped out at me in Voyage dans les Hébrides (a French translation of the two accounts of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson’s 1773 tour of Scotland, by Marcel de Pape and Marc de Pape). As I flicked through the book – getting bamboozled by hundreds of pages of French – I saw the names Lord Elibank, Dr William Robertson and…Dr Beattie. Boswell had written to all three early in 1773, requesting letters of support encouraging Samuel Johnson to visit Scotland. I’ve read the journal several times before (in English, ahem) but didn’t make the connection. I’ve looked back through my copy of To The Hebrides, the most up-to-date edition of Boswell and Johnson’s accounts and there in the text and notes by editor Ronald Black it’s clear Boswell and Beattie knew one another, and I discover they – Boswell, Beattie and Johnson – also met and spent time in one another’s company. This process of discovery and connection is a great feeling. It’s not original literary ‘detective’ work of the type Richard Altick, James L Clifford or Richard Homes describe in their terrific books…it’s personal ‘detective’ work, piecing together stories and pictures as we learn broader and more deeply about our favourite topics.

Notes
Boswell Papers Found at Fettercairn, Claude Colleer Abbott (1936)
James Beattie’s London Diary 1773, (ed) Ralph S Walker (1946)
Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763, Frederick Pottle (1950)
Voyage dans les Hébrides, Marcel de Pape and Marc de Pape (1991)
To The Hebrides, (ed) Ronald Black (2007)
The Scholar Adventurers, Richard D Altick (1950)
From Puzzles to Portraits, James L Clifford (1971)
Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer, Richard Homes (1985)