Biography:

Claude Colleer Abbott. (1889-1971) Literary scholar and poet.

Claude Colleer Abbott was ca. 1930 a Lecturer in English at the University of Aberdeen. In the winter of 1930/31 he was going through papers found at Fettercairn House, near Aberdeen, in search of material about Scottish philosopher James Beattie (1735-1803). Whether he discovered anything about Beattie or not doesn't matter today, because among the papers he discovered was what, to the general public, is probably the most significant Boswellian discovery ever - James Boswell's journal of his 1762-63 stay in London, long thought to have been destroyed.

He collaborated with Frederick Pottle in the task of cataloguing the papers which eventually ended up in the possession of Yale University, but, as can be seen from his other publications, Boswell wasn't his only interest. In 1932 he published Early Medieval French Lyrics, in 1935 (repr. 1955) came his three volume edition of the correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and a few years before his death, in 1967, came The Life and Letters of George Darley, Poet and Critic. In 1963 was published his own Collected Poems of Claude Colleer Abbott.

Interesting litterature:

You can find most of Abbotts writings rather inexpensively via the Abebooks used books search engine, including a few Boswell related writings (pamphlets, articles, lectures).