"In the first place, most of the prima facie evidence is lost. The notes on which the books are based have, in general, perished.....The three persons nominated as literary executors did not meet, and the entire business of the trust was adminstered by Sir William Forbes, Bart., who appointed his law-agent, Robert Boswell, Writer to the Signet, cousin-german of the deceased. By that gentleman's advice, Boswell's manuscripts were left to the disposal of his family; and it is believed that the whole were immediately destroyed."
Tinker was planning to publish a collection of Boswell's letters and had access to many of them, particularly those to Temple (a collection of these had been published in 1908 by Secombe). He could also use the published works and also two important primary sources which he thought had 'escaped the flames', a Commonplace Book of notes covering the period 1763 to 1785 and one of the journals used in the preparation of the 'Life'. The latter consisted predominantly of material about Johnson covering his early life and other periods when Boswell wasn't with him but also included an account of their visit to Dr. Taylor in Ashbourne in 1777. In addition, he had access to the two sets of proofsheets of the 'Life' owned by the Johnson and Boswell collector R.B.Adam.
With these materials Tinker produced what is still one of the best and most vivid accounts of Boswell, and one which pioneered the more nuanced and balanced assessment of his life and personality which is now common (although, even in 1922, when 'Young Boswell' was published in America, across the Atlantic the existence of a huge quantity of Boswell's papers was already widely known about.
How such a situation came to exist is one of the most bizarre and fascinating stories in literary history. It is well told in David Buchanan's 'The Treasure of Auchinleck' published in 1974 and Pottle expanded the account he had given in a preface to the de luxe edition of the 'London Journal' in 'Pride and Negligence' published in 1982. However, as neither of these is easily available, I thought a short account would not go amiss.
Early Days
Contrary to popular myth, the existence of Boswell's journals is not a modern discovery. He tells Johnson in the 'Tour of the Hebrides' that he keeps a journal and it features in 'The Journalist', one of Rowlandson's satirical cartoons 'The Picturesque Beauties of Boswell'. His friends and acquaintances as well as, presumably startled, famous contemporaries were frequently asked for letters or other writings which he could add to his collection and use to supplement his own accounts. In 1814, in the second edition of his 'Life of Lord Kames', A.F.Tyler refers to Boswell's papers still being at Auchinleck.
So why was it assumed for the best part of a century that Boswell's papers had been destroyed, or more specifically 'burned'.
When Croker was working on his edition of the 'Life', published in 1831, he tracked down much new material, including about 100 previously unpublished Johnson letter. He was sure that Boswell's original diary must still be in existence, probably at Auchinleck, but in spite of enlisting the help of Sir Walter Scott he did not even get a reply to his requests to visit and investigate. To complicate matters further, Boswell's great-granddaughter, Emily Harriett, married the fourth Lord Talbot de Malahide and moved, with many family possessions and heirlooms, to Malahide Castle near Dublin. Sir James, the grandson, and his family continued to live at Auchinleck. Perhaps from frustration, perhaps from mis-information, Croker wrote in his Preface;
"...the original journals do not exist at Auchinleck...and it is feared that they have been irretrievably dispersed."A few years later, an extraordinary and not unconnected event occurred in Boulogne when a certain Major Stone noticed that an item he had purchased in a shop was wrapped in a fragment of a letter signed by James Boswell. He returned to the shop and was able to buy no fewer than ninety-seven letters written by Boswell to his closest friend William Temple, covering virtually the whole of his life. These obviously came from Temple's papers not Boswell's, but it is still surprising that, although they contain numerous references to the journals and other materials that Boswell had collected, when they were published in 1856 they did not appear to re-kindle interest in the whereabouts of this literary treasure trove.
In fact, the next known reference was another negative one. In 1874 the Grampian Club published 'Boswelliana, The Commonplace Book of James Boswell'. In his preface the Rev. Charles Rogers stated that "Boswell's manuscripts were left to the disposal of his family; and it is believed that the whole were immediately destroyed." This statement is given on no authority whatever. Yet Birkbeck Hill in 1890, when he wrote 'Footsteps of Doctor Johnson (Scotland)' said;
"How little did [Boswell] foresee that his executors, with a brutish ignorance worthy of perpetual execration, would destroy his manuscripts!"This was an even wilder claim than that of Rogers yet the fact that Hill did not even attempt to contact or visit Auchinleck during the preparation of his magnificent edition of the 'Life' impies that he already believed that Boswell's papers had either been destroyed or 'irretrievably dispersed'. The same allegation was made by Leslie Stephen in his DNB article about Boswell and as he and Hill were close friends it is possible that one convinced the other. More positively, however, Hill began the rehabilitation of Boswell, vilified by Croker and more famously by Macaulay in his review of Croker. In the notes to his 'Life' he treats Boswell as a talented and serious writer, not as a fortunate buffoon.
This revisionist, and not universally popular, view was given full expression by the first genuine Boswell scholar, Professor Chauncey B. Tinker of Yale. In 1922 he published 'Young Boswell' and in 1924 'Letters of James Boswell'. Anxious that the latter should be as complete as possible he contacted Auchinleck as many had before. However, tipped off by a correspondent that "James Talbot... has lately imported here an escritoire of Boswell's which is full of letters, so far uncatalogued', he also wrote to Malahide Castle. Neither approach was fruitful. Talbot replied that he "cannot meet your views in this respect" and Mr. McCrone, the tenant at Auchinleck, told him;
"When James Boswell Talbot took possession he cleared out a large number of the Books and Papers which were thrown out of the window into the court and he...made a bonfire, so little did the family think of their great predecessor."Curiously, this tissue of nonsense might have its origins in a mistake involving Malone himself. In a footnote to his 1809 edition of the 'Life' he wrote that he had been unable to verify the text of a letter from Johnson "the original letter being burned in a mass of papers in Scotland". Except he didn't. It is almost certain that he actually wrote 'buried' and it was mis-printed. Nevertheless, coupled with family resentments, the passage of time and the human tendency to embroider the past, this could have mutated into the story told by McCrone.
In any event, Tinker made no further enquiries and, in spite of coming acros a letter from Malone during his researches stating explicitly that Boswell's papers had been deposited at Auchinleck, did not refer to the possibility of the papers still existing when he published his 1924 book.
Lt.-Colonel Ralph Heywood Isham was born in New York in 1890, and attended Cornell and Yale. He began studying Boswell at Yale and to collect the works of those who were brought to life by his writing. Keen to ‘do his bit’ and frustrated by America’s hesitation he joined the British army in 1915 and served on the staffs of Robertson and Haig. For his services in restoring morale after the war he was made a CBE, and by the time he returned to America his whole persona was British; something which would serve him in good stead later.
Back in America he settled into a successful career, which helped fund a growing collection of rare books and manuscripts, and gradually came into contact with the various people circling round the story of the Boswell papers.
For even while Tinker was explaining the disappearance of the papers, he knew that they still existed and indeed they had already been twice offered for publication. The first clue is a letter of 1809 from Edmond Malone to Boswell’s daughter Euphemia which Tinker had seen, which says;
“you are , I conceive, under some mistake with respect to your father’s papers……….They are now deposited at Auchinleck; in which repository, I trust, they will be suffered to remain in peace.”Amazingly, Tinker did not at that time follow up on this discovery, but within a few years it was widely known that a significant portion at least of Boswell’s archive had survived, although it had by now been moved to Malahide Castle, family seat of the Talbots, linked by marriage to Boswell’s great-granddaughter Emily, and was stored in the escritoire, now referred to as the ‘ebony cabinet’. In 1911, Sir John Murray was invited to consider publication but declined, partly because of the scurrilous nature of even the expurgated typescript he had been sent but principally because of his concern that publication would reinforce the ‘Macaulay’ assessment of Boswell and detract from his prestige as a great writer. Over the years, as well, guests at Malahide were shown the cabinet, and extracts from the papers were read out to the guests at dinner.
In 1921, James Boswell Talbot succeeded as the 6th Lord Talbot, but took no immediate interest in the papers. However, in 1924 he married the much younger Miss Joyce Gunning Kerr, who realised not only the literary but also the possible financial value of the papers. Publication was again discussed in May 1925, but this time it was concluded that, appropriately censored, the journals would only be of interest to scholars and that uncensored publication was out of the question. However, by November Tinker had been informed by friends about the existence of the materials and arranged through intermediaries to visit Malahide. He was permitted to view the cabinet and some of its contents;
“I was led into an adjoining room, where I found myself standing in front of the famous ‘ebony cabinet’ – a sort of highboy with many drawers. The drawers which I was permitted to pull open were crammed with papers in the wildest confusion. I felt like Sinbad in the valley of rubies. I glanced – panting the while – at a few sheets. One was a letter from Boswell to Alexander, then a schoolboy. At once I realised that a new day had dawned for Boswellians, and that for C.B.Tinker there was a dreadful crisis, the resolution of which would alter the whole of his future life (I did not sleep that night).”Tinker’s offer of editorial help was, for whatever reasons, declined and he returned to London frustrated and dispirited. However, he had been able to verify beyond doubt the survival of a large quantity of Boswell’s papers, and revived the Talbot’s interest in publication,and before long news of this filtered through to Isham. He was a collector rather than a publisher or editor, and so asked his contacts to sound out the Talbot interest in selling some or all of the journals and other papers. As a result of this, he concluded that a visit to Malahide would be necessary. Lord Talbot agreed, whilst making it clear that he was not contemplating selling the papers, and accordingly tea was served on 15 June 1926. What took place is not known, but it is clear from later developments that Isham realised that his best bet was to get the support of Lady Talbot, who was very interested in the possibility of publication, and use her influence to bring Lord Talbot round to the idea. Using all his charm and patrician skills he obviously succeeded in the first part of this strategy and before long detailed correspondence was flying to and fro. Isham immediately came up with a brilliant scheme to meet both his and her interests in the Journals;
“…you would sell it [but] make the purchase consideration consist of three things – first, the amount of money involved; second, a signed undertaking to publish the Diary; third, an undertaking to submit to you a copy of what is proposed to publish and to allow only that which met your approval to be used…I need hardly say that I would myself be glad to purchase the Diary on this basis although I am appalled at the work involved”he wrote on 5 July 1926. For her part, Lady Talbot undertook to go through the papers and sort out what they included. After some bargaining, at which Lady Talbot was a good match for Isham, he returned to Malahide in August 1927 and over a long weekend the pair of them agreed prices for a huge range of materials. When he returned to London, Isham took with him all the papers except the journals; about 150 letters from Boswell, more than 200 letters to him and others from various correspondents including Voltaire, Johnson, Goldsmith; an almost complete manuscript of An Account of Corsica, 16 leaves of the manuscript of the Life, Boswell’s account of his interview with the dying David Hume and much else - plus the unfounded impression that the manuscript of the rest of the Life had ‘crumbled to dust’ and that Boswell’s account of his affair with Rousseau’s mistress had been burnt. He left behind a cheque for £13,385. His only failure, if it can be so described, was that Lady Talbot was still insisting that none of the journals could be considered for purchase or publication before she and her husband had read and edited them.
Isham now needed an editor. Tinker, amazingly, declined – partly from jealousy, partly from fear of the amount of work involved. Next approached, bizarrely, was T.E. Lawrence who, fortunately, also declined, explaining that he had never read a word of Boswell. Then, finally, the right editor was found, thanks to a suggestion from A. Edward Newton who had been instrumental in bringing the availability of the papers to Isham’s attention in the first place. After looking through the collection in Isham’s room at Claridges, Newton suggested Geoffrey Scott, writer of 'Portrait of Zelide' - described as ‘wellnigh perfect’ by Edith Wharton. Isham described what followed;
“…Scott…had long had it in his mind to write a Life of Boswell…[but had] done very little, for the reason that he had learned of the existence of the papers at Malahide and had decided not to proceed with his Life until they had been revealed.By mid-September Isham had taken delivery, for £1,250, of the slightly censored ‘Ashbourne’ journal, and the following month he and Scott sailed to America to begin work on an edition of the papers, even though he had no guarantee at that time that he would see any other journals, or what conditions the Talbots would impose on their publication. In December agreement was made with William E Rudge for the publication of a de luxe limited edition in twelve volumes with Bruce Rogers designing the layout and topography – “the thing should see the light of day in impeccable form” – with the later publication of a public edition in three volumes by Doubleday. By this time Lady Talbot had made considerable progress on reviewing the journals, and a price of £20,000 for the whole was agreed (in the end it came to over 4,000 pages). What with the travel, the purchase of the earlier manuscripts and the launch of the private edition, Isham was financially stretched but James H Van Alan, a wealthy friend, offered a loan. The manuscripts of the journals duly arrived in batches during December 1927 and January 1928, but partly through her own concerns and partly because she knew that her husband was still unhappy about the whole exercise, Lady Talbot had censored them even more stringently than when they had originally been offered to John Murray. However, she had done this by inking over the offending passages and had not removed any pages. This meant that most of the deletions were decipherable and after much deliberation Isham decided that to publish the journals in full was the only proper action. Remarkably, when Lady Talbot found out, in September 1929, she accepted Isham’s explanation and forgave him.Two days after my evening with Mr. Newton, a sudden urge came over me to call on Mr. Wilson [a bookseller who knew Scott]. I dropped work and went. I told him of my acquisition. He popped with excitement and said ‘I wish you had been here fifteen minutes earlier. Geoffrey Scott was here then.’ It was incredible. In a very few minutes he had Geoffrey on the telephone, introduced me to him over it, and I told him the Boswell ‘news’. At this moment I had my first glimpse of his brilliant enthusiasm.”
By the summer of 1929 Scott had completed the first six volumes of the private edition and they were being well received by the press and public. Having sent the next four volumes for proofing, he decided he needed a rest and went back to Britain for a couple of months, during which he visited Auchinleck and visited various members of the Boswell family hoping, vainly, to turn up more papers.
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