Genius Fan

Boswell and Yale

This page is for everyone interested in James Boswell, from newbie-Boswellian to the Boswell Boffin. All this information is available online and in books, but I felt it would be useful to bring it all together linked on one huge, massively long page. Let’s go!

I’m going to update this page over time, so here are the basics.

Boswell Papers go to Yale University

Today, by far the greatest archive of material about James Boswell is owned by the University of Yale, in the town of New Haven, Connecticut, USA. That archive started life in 1949 when the university purchased the Boswell collection of documents found at Malahide Castle, Ireland, and amassed by American collector Lt Col Ralph Heyward Isham. In 1950 it made a second major purchase of documents, found at Fettercairn House, Scotland, which had also been acquired by Isham. In December of 1950, a team led by Yale Professor Frederick Pottle decided on a programme of editing and publishing which would bring the Boswell archive to the public. The first publication from this team was the first of Boswell’s journals: Boswell’s London Journal 1762–1763.

This was the first in an ambitious programme of publication in two strands: ‘Trade’ (The Yale Trade Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell) which were to be Boswell’s journals made accessible to the public, and ‘Research’ (the scholarly series of publications, the Yale Research Editions), bringing Boswell’s original journals, correspondence and documentation surrounding his Life of Johnson in its original text, but heavily annotated and contextualised.

Boswell’s ‘Lost’ Papers Found

James Boswell died in 1795 and for more than a century it was assumed his journals – everyone knew he kept them, that’s the source for so much of the Samuel Johnson anecdotes – had been disposed of by his family. I’ve read this story about half a dozen times and it never gets old. The discovery of James Boswell’s private papers is probably the most exciting from the whole Eighteenth century.

Discovered in Ireland

Discovered in Scotland

The Yale Trade Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell

Here I set out details about the books that comprise the Yale Trade Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell. In this context, ‘trade’ edition means the first edition for general sale to the public. The committee of Yale scholars formed to decide on how to publish this

  • 1950: Boswell’s London Journal 1762–1763
    • Edited by Frederick A Pottle
  • 1952: Boswell in Holland, 1763–1764
    • Edited by FA Pottle
  • 1952: Portraits, by Sir Joshua Reynolds
    • Edited Frederick W Hilles
  • 1953: Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland, 1764
    • Edited by FA Pottle
  • 1955: Boswell on the Grand Tour: Italy, Corsica, and France, 1765–1766
    • Edited by Frank Brady and FA Pottle
  • 1956: Boswell in Search of a Wife, 1766–1769
    • Edited by F Brady and FA Pottle
  • 1959: Boswell for the Defence, 1769–1774
    • Edited by William K. Wimsatt, Jr and FA Pottle
  • 1961: Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson
    • Edited by FA Pottle and Charles H. Bennett
  • 1963: Boswell: The Ominous Years, 1774–1776
    • Edited by Charles Ryskamp and FA Pottle
  • 1970: Boswell in Extremes, 1776–1778
    • Edited by Charles McC. Weis and FA Pottle
  • 1977: Boswell, Laird of Auchinleck, 1778–1782
    • Edited by Joseph W Reed and FA Pottle
  • 1981: Boswell: The Applause of the Jury, 1782–1785
    • Edited by Irma S Lustig and FA Pottle
  • 1986: Boswell: The English Experiment, 1785–1789
    • Edited by IS Lustig and FA Pottle
  • 1989: Boswell: The Great Biographer, 1789–1795
    • Edited by Marlies K. Danziger and F Brady

Notes
Yale University – Trade Editions
Yale University – Research Editions
See my post Starting my James Boswell Collecting Habit

Pottle and the Boswell Factory

One name will forever be associated with the Yale Boswell project and that is Frederick A Pottle. Look at the fourteen volumes in the Trade Editions Series, published over 39 years, and you’ll see Pottle’s name associated with twelve of them. He edited the first three on his own (not including the incongruous Portraits, by Sir Joshua Reynolds), and then he co-edited the rest, but died in 1987 before the final volume was published in 1989.

The Yale Research Editions

For a Boswell layman like me the Yale Research Editions of Boswell’s archive offer a peek into the world of the scholar. I have four of these Research editions. They were cheap, so I snapped ’em up, but some of these volumes will cost £210, way out of my price range. The Introductions are the really fascinating part of these Reearch editions. I just don’t have a research need (ahem…yet!) to dig into the original correspondence between Boswell and the overseers at his Auchinleck estates, James Bruce and Andrew Gibb. There’s always so much to read. And so little time.

  • 2020: James Boswell’s Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript in Four Volumes, Volume 4, 1780–1784
  • 2012: James Boswell’s ‘Life of Johnson’: An Edition of the Original Manuscript in Four Volumes, Volume 3, 1776–1780
  • 2008: James Boswell: The Journal of His German and Swiss Travels, 1764
  • 2006: The General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1757–1763
  • 2001 (updated from 1969): The Correspondence and Other Papers of James Boswell Relating to the Making of the “Life of Johnson”
  • 1998: The Correspondence of James Boswell with James Bruce and Andrew Gibb, Overseers of the Auchinleck Estate
  • 1998: James Boswell’s ‘Life of Johnson’: An Edition of the Original Manuscript in Four Volumes; Volume 2: 1766–1776
  • 1997: The General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1766–1769 Volume 2: 1768–1769
  • 1997: The Correspondence of James Boswell and William Johnson Temple, 1756–1795, Vol. 1: 1756–1777
  • 1994: James Boswell’s ‘Life of Johnson’: An Edition of the Original Manuscript in Four Volumes; Volume 1: 1709–1765
  • 1993: The General Correspondence of James Boswell 1766-1769, Vol. 1: 1766-1767
  • 1993: Catalogue of the Papers of James Boswell at Yale University (in three volumes)
  • 1986: The Correspondence of James Boswell with David Garrick, Edmund Burke, and Edmond Malone
  • 1976: The Correspondence of James Boswell with Certain Members of the Club
  • 1966: The Correspondence of James Boswell and John Johnston of Grange