Hyde Collection Catablog » John Overholt

James Boswell, International Man of Mystery

John Overholt — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:38:11 +0000

A discussion on C18-L alerted me to a recently published novel called The Brothers Boswell, in which James Boswell’s criminally insane brother John stalks Boswell and Johnson, planning to murder them with a pair of golden pistols. The Washington Post has a review here, and the New York Times has posted the first chapter. Author Philip Baruth talks a bit about writing the novel here.

If you can’t say something nice…

John Overholt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:09:54 +0000

I don’t know much about this little clipping I found in the back of a copy of Mrs. Piozzi’s Anecdotes, but I think it’s safe to say the author was not a fan of Johnson.

Character of Dr. Johnson, Written After His Death

A Bard, whom Apollo had never inspir’d;
A Courtier, who scribbled just as he was hir’d;
A Critic, thro’ caprice and prejudice blind,
And virtuous, because to no vices inclin’d;
An implicit Believer, because he ne’er doubted,
And a Writer, because he could not live without it.
In conduct a Bear, conversation a Clown,
A Friend to no country excepting his own.
An Author inflated with pride and bombast;
A Bigot, in trammels confin’d to the last;
A Dupe to the Church, and a slave to the Priest:
In learning a Pedant, in manners a Beast.

Mary Hyde’s Wilde side

John Overholt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:10:45 +0000

via the Exlibris email list:

The Collector as Artist: Lady Eccles and Oscar Wilde.

John Stokes

Monday 11 January 2010 at 18.00 at the British Library Conference Centre 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB.

Taking Lady Eccles’ magnificent donation of material relating to Oscar Wilde and his circle to the British Library as its example, the talk will explore the ways in which the creativity of the collector can, in turn, inspire the imagination of the scholar.

Mary, Viscountess Eccles (1912 – 2003), was one of the foremost collectors of her time, amassing an outstanding wealth of material relating to Wilde which she bequeathed to the British Library. The Eccles Collection of Oscar Wilde comprises almost 2,000 items, including manuscripts (correspondence, works, etc.) printed books (amongst them a number of presentation copies and books from Wilde’s own library) and a wide range of ephemera. This talk celebrates the completion of the cataloguing of the collection which is now available through the Library’s online catalogues.

John Stokes is Emeritus Professor of Modern British Literature in the Department of English at King’s College London. Together with Dr Mark Turner, also of King’s College, he is now editing Wilde’s journalism for the Oxford English Texts edition of the Complete Works.

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception.

Attendance is free, but please register your name with Teresa Harrington at the British Library.

Last chance to see

John Overholt — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:52:44 +0000

I’ve given several tours of the Hyde Collection exhibition since it opened in August, and HCL News has just done a story about the last of these, accompanied by a picture in which you can see me attempting to point out something without putting smudgy fingerprints on the display case. That’s a good time to remind those of you in the Boston area that the exhibition will be closing here on November 14th. Don’t despair if you can’t make it, however; the new and improved version will open at the Grolier Club in New York on December 9th, with extra things I didn’t have room for here at Houghton.

Johnson at 300 at Yale

John Overholt — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:22:53 +0000

My colleague Kathryn James’s exhibition on Johnson and Boswell, “Really As It Was: Writing the Life of Samuel Johnson” will be on display at Yale’s Beinecke Library until mid-December, and has an excellent online version as well. The Beinecke is of course the home of the tremendous Boswell Papers collection, much of which has been digitized.

A new member of the family

John Overholt — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:50:35 +0000

Today we unveiled the newest blog at Houghton, the aptly named Houghton Library Blog. Alongside the Catablog and the Modern Books and Manuscripts Blog, the new blog will cover new acquisitions, events, and interesting discoveries throughout the all the departments at Houghton.

Peyraud rundown

John Overholt — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:16:33 +0000

You’ll need to have access to the journal Eighteenth-Century Studies to read it, but Maureen Mulvihill’s report on the Paula Peyraud sale, at which we made a number of purchases, is now online.

UPDATE: The PDF of the report is now available here.

Just wild about Mary

John Overholt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:28:47 +0000

My fellow Mary Hyde enthusiast Jerry Morris has just posted a great story about finding a used copy of Bate’s biography of Johnson with a triple play of Johnsonian provenance, in a rather out-of-the-way place. In addition, he’s posted scans of some photos of Mary, including a scandalous photo I’d never seen before. Who knew the future Viscountess Eccles was such a wild youth!

Johnson on the air

John Overholt — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:59:09 +0000

In honor of the tercentenary, BBC Radio 4 is airing a series of programs on Samuel Johnson, including a dramatization of Boswell’s Life, and an appreciation of Johnson by current London mayor Boris Johnson. Act now, because the programs will stay on the website for only a week after they air.

A very successful symposium

John Overholt — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:00:51 +0000

There’s a nice article in the new Harvard Gazette about our just-completed symposium Johnson at 300, and it provides me with an opportunity to thank all of those who contributed to making it so tremendously enjoyable and productive, most especially my colleagues Tom Horrocks and Peter Accardo, who worked tirelessly to bring it to fruition.