Frederick Pottle was born in Center Lovell, Maine, on 3 August 1897. He
graduated from Colby College in 1917, after which he taught for a time at Hebron
Academy and served as an orderly in the Army in World War I. After the war, he
undertook graduate studies at Yale, which is where he began the work on James
Boswell for which he is best known. He taught English at Yale from 1925 until
his retirement; during much of this time, he worked with his wife, Marion (née
Starbird), on the Boswell papers. They began in 1930 at the home of collector
Ralph Heyward Isham and continued when Yale bought the papers in 1949; Marion
Pottle arranged and catalogued the Boswell collection, while Frederick Pottle
served as editor. He remained as editor until he retired due to ill health; he
died in New Haven, Connecticut, on 16 May 1987.
1897 August 3
Born in Center Lovell, Maine.
1917
Graduated from Colby College.
1917
1919
Served in Evacuation Hospital No. 8, Mayen, Germany.
1920 September 9
Married Marion Isabel Starbird.
1921
Awarded M.A. in English, Yale University.
1921
1923
Taught at the University of New Hampshire.
1923
1925
Awarded Ph.D. in English, Yale University
1925
1966
Taught English at Yale University.
1930
Became full professor of English at Yale University.
1930
Began editing Ralph Heyward Isham's Boswell Collection.
1932
1933
Appointed Chairman of the English Department, Yale
University.
1939
1945
Appointed Director of Graduate Studies, English Department, Yale
University.
1944
Named Sterling Professor of English.
1949
1979
Named Editor-in-chief, Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James
Boswell.
1987 May 16
Died, New Haven Convalescent Home.
1987 May 20
Interred, Elmwood Memorial Garden, Otisfield, Maine.
Frederick A. Pottle was born in Center Lovell, Maine to Leroy and Annette Kemp
Pottle. He studied at Colby College and Yale University and is best known for
editing the private papers of James Boswell. He published several volumes, most
of which pertained to Boswell; among those were Boswell’s London Journal: 1762-1763 (1950)
and James Boswell: The Early
Years, 1740-1769 (1966).
Pottle spent his early life in Maine. He attended Colby College and received his
B.A. in 1917. Afterwards, he taught at Hebron Academy. From 1917-1919, he served
as a medical corpsman with the Army at Evacuation Hospital No. 8 in Mayen,
Germany; he wrote about his experiences in Stretchers; The Story of a Hospital Unit on the
Western Front. After the war, he began graduate studies in English at
Yale. After completing his M.A. in 1921, he taught for two years at the
University of New Hampshire. He returned to Yale to complete his doctorate
beginning in 1923, and thus initiated an association with James Boswell that
would endure for the rest of his life.
When Pottle began his doctoral studies, Chauncey Brewster Tinker encouraged him
to do a bibliographic analysis of Boswell’s papers. He completed his doctorate
in 1925, at which time be began teaching at Yale. The book based upon his
dissertation, The Literary
Career of James Boswell, was published in 1929; in 1930, Pottle
became the youngest man appointed to the position of full professor in the
University’s English Department. Although he is best known for his work on
Boswell, Pottle had other literary interests as well. He wrote on The Idiom of Poetry
(1963) as well as a work on Shelley and Browning: A Myth and Some Facts (1965).
In the same year that he became a full professor, Ralph Heyward Isham asked
Pottle to spend time at his house in Glen Cove, New York, editing the James
Boswell papers that he had collected. Pottle adopted a schedule wherein he
taught at Yale three days a week and commuted to Glen Cove to work on the papers
for another three days. When he was able to take research leave, he and his
wife, Marion, worked full time on the papers. After some time in Glen Cove,
Pottle returned to teaching full time at Yale, and in the ensuing decade assumed
administrative positions including Head of the English Department and Director
of Graduate Studies. In 1944, he was named Sterling Professor of English, a
position he held until his retirement from academic teaching in 1966.
When Ralph Isham sold his collection of Boswell papers to Yale in 1949, Pottle
was appointed editor-in-chief of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of
James Boswell; he remained in that position until he retired in 1979. During his
tenure as Editor, more than ten volumes of edited journals were published, in
addition to scholarly works based on Boswell’s writings.
Frederick Pottle was joined in his work by his wife, Marion, who was listed as a
co-author on some of the catalogues. Together they had three children. Their
daughter, Annette, was born and died in 1921; their youngest son, Samuel
(1934-1978) also predeceased them; they were survived by their elder son,
Christopher (1932-2011). Frederick Pottle died at the New Haven Convalescent
Home on 16 May 1987; his wife died on 24 May 1992.
Frederick Pottle's publications:
- Shelley and Browning; A
Myth and Some Facts. With a Foreword by William Lyon Phelps.
(1923).
- Bozzy and Yorick.
(1925).
- The Incredible
Boswell. (1925).
- The Part Played by
Horace Walpole and James Boswell in the Quarrel between Rousseau and
Hume. (1925).
- "Two Notes on Ben Jonson's Staple of News". Modern Language Notes. (1925).
- A New Portrait of James
Boswell, with Chauncey Brewster Tinker and Bruce Rogers.
(1927).
- Private Papers of James
Boswell from Malahide Castle: In the Collection of Lt.-Colonel Ralph
Heyward Isham. (1928-1941).
- The Literary Career of
James Boswell, Esq. Being the Bibliographical Materials for a Life of
Boswell. (1929).
- Stretchers: The Story of
a Hospital Unit on the Western Front. (1929).
- Catalogue of an
Exhibition of the Private Papers of James Boswell from Malahide Castle,
etc., with Marion Starbird Pottle. (1930).
- Næs gīt yfel wīf in
the Old English Apollonius. (1931).
- "Printer's copy in the eighteenth century". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of
America. (1933).
- Boswell's Journal of a
Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL. D.. (1936).
- Boswell and the Girl
from Botany Bay. (1937).
- Index to the Private
Papers from Malahide Castle in the Collection of Ralph Heyward
Isham, with Joseph Foladare, and John P. Kirby. (1937).
- "The Dark Hints of Sir John Hawkins and Boswell". Modern Language Notes. (1941)
- The Idiom of Poetry.
(The Messenger Lectures, 1941.) (1941).
- Boswell and Mrs.
Piozzi. (1942?).
- Notes on the History of
Marriage Legislation. (1945).
- Boswell's London Journal
1762-1763: Now First Published from the Original Manuscript.
(1950).
- Boswell in Holland
1763-1764: Including his Correspondence with Belle de Zuylen
(Zélide) (1952).
- "The Case of Shelley". Publications of the Modern Language Association of America.
(1952).
- Boswell on the Grand
Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1764. (1953).
- Boswell on the Grand
Tour Italy, Corsica, and France, 1765-1766. (1955).
- Boswell: The Ominous
Years, 1774-1776. (1955).
- Boswell in Search of a
Wife, 1766-69. (1956).
- The Christian Teaching
of Literature. (1956).
- Boswell for the Defence:
1769-1744. (1959).
- "Notes on the Importance of Private Legal Documents for the Writing of
Biography and Literary History". Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society. (1962).
- James Boswell: The
Earlier Years, 1740-1769. (1966).
- "Placement Register". The American Archivist . (1966).
- Boswell in Extremes:
1776-1778. (1970).
- "Wordsworth in the Present Day". Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society. (1972).
- Boswell, Laird of
Auchinleck: 1778-1782. (1977).
- Boswell: The Applause of
the Jury, 1782-1785. (1980).
- Frederick Pottle
Remembers William Edwin Rudge. (1981).
- Pride and Negligence:
The History of the Boswell Papers. (1981).