Yale's Shrine to the Age of Reason

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Over the years, says Martz, the library has acquired first editions of works by virtually every major 18th century author. Many of the collection's trophies are currently on display in honor of the new Yale Center. The exhibit begins with Dryden's Fables, Ancient and Modern, which was published in London in 1700, and ends with Wordsworth's manuscript for the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, which appeared in 1800. Also on display are The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, An Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard, and James Boswell's manuscript of The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., which Martz says is "literally priceless."

Yale's grip on the 18th century—or vice versa—has inspired two great publishing projects, on Boswell and WaLpole. The Boswell "factory," as it is sometimes called, is essentially manned by one scholar, retired English Professor Frederick Pottle, 79 (who has, however, a staff of four helpers). A stooped, sprightly man given to suspenders and tweed jackets, Pottle pursues his life's work in a dusty room in the main Sterling Library, cluttered with index cards, legal pads and old pharmacy lamps. He started in 1924 with a doctoral bibliography on Boswell, then went to do research work at the Long Island estate of wealthy Collector Colonel Ralph Isham, who had bought the bulk of the Boswell papers from Boswell's heirs. Yale purchased the papers in 1949, after Isham had fallen on hard times, and Pottle took charge. Boswell's London Journal, full of ribald details of night life along the Thames, was an international bestseller in 1950, but volumes since then have subsided to a series of scholarly thuds. Volume X, The Laird of Auchinleck, which traces Boswell's life from the summer of 1778 to the fall of 1782, is scheduled to be published in September. (Three more volumes are yet to come before Boswell's death in 1795.) Even after a half-century of work, Pottle remains enthralled by his period. Says he: "People in the 18th century had a passion for facts. They weren't so much involved in agonizing."

Right next door to Pottle is the office devoted to Horace Walpole—son of British Prime Minister Robert Walpole, author of the classic gothic, Castle of Otranto, and foremost letter writer of his time (1717-97). For 44 years, the Walpole factory has churned out 39 of a prospective 48 fat volumes of Walpole's correspondence. A massive index, now under way, may alone fill six more volumes. The whole set is, in Librarian Martz's words, "the ultimate in annotation, excellence and accuracy."