Pride and Negligence
Pride and negligence is the fascinating account, not only of the gradual discovery and assembling of the great trove of manuscripts, letters, proofs, and related Boswellian materials intermittently from 1925 to 1950 - many of which turned up in Malahide Castle in Ireland and at Fettercairn Castle in Scotland, in such unlikely storage places as a croquet box and a stable loft - but of the evolution of a significant literary concept: the intent to fully disclose and make available to all the material at hand, which has as its practical expression the fullest possible publication of a "great coherent human document". (partly quoted from the book it self)
This book was supposed to supplement the Catalogue of the Papers of James Boswell, which was prepared by Frederick Pottle's wife Marion. However, for various reasons - one of them was funding - Pride and Negligence was eventually published a massive 11 years before the publication of the work it was meant to supplement.
Pride and Negligence is nominally a part of the Yale Research Series of Boswell papers, but is unusual in that it is the only one in that series that does not publish or reproduce original material, but rather tells the story of that material.
Pride and Negligence is usually available via AbeBooks.
