Frederick A. Pottle

Frederick A. Pottle (born Aug. 3, 1897, Lovell, Maine, U.S.—died May 16, 1987, New Haven, Conn., U.S.) was an American scholar who became the foremost authority on the 18th-century English biographer James Boswell.

Pottle graduated from Colby College in 1917 and earned a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1925. He taught at Yale from 1925 until his retirement in 1966, becoming a full professor there in 1930. Almost Pottle’s entire scholarly career was devoted to the editing and publication of Boswell’s journals and letters, 13,000 pages of which were purchased by Yale in 1949. The publication of these materials under Pottle’s guidance began in 1950 with Boswell’s London Journal, 1762–1763, and continued thereafter, with plans for a total of 30 to 35 volumes to be published. Thirteen such volumes were published under Pottle’s editorship. Among Pottle’s other works are James Boswell, The Earlier Years, 1740–1769 (1966).