{"id":362,"date":"2012-06-07T16:12:46","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T20:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hydeblog\/?p=362"},"modified":"2012-06-07T16:12:46","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T20:12:46","slug":"weve-got-boswellian-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hydeblog\/2012\/06\/07\/weve-got-boswellian-mail\/","title":{"rendered":"We’ve Got Boswellian Mail!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote last Friday’s You’ve Got Mail<\/a> piece for the Houghton Blog on a major new acquisition–a lengthy 1775 letter from Boswell to his brother David. We acquired a second letter at the same time, which may not be quite as dramatic as the letter to David Boswell, but is important and interesting nonetheless. <\/p>\n

Boswell was an important advocate for the cause of Corsican independence in the 1760s, and first found literary fame through his book An Account of Corsica<\/a><\/em>. To build British support, Boswell relayed reports from the Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli to persons of influence, in this case George, Lord Lyttleton, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer. Boswell implores Lyttleton to attach his prestige to a book Boswell was preparing called British Essays in Favor of the Brave Corsicans<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

If your Lordship does not forbid me I will enrich the collection with your Lordship’s letter to me in which you write in such a style as does honour both to Paoli and to your Lordship. Pray do not refuse that such a testimony to the modern Epaminondas should appear at a time when he is in distress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Boswell was unsuccessful on both counts: Lyttleton’s letter did not appear in British Essays<\/em>, and Paoli’s Corsican revolutionaries were forced to surrender to French rule the following year.<\/p>\n\n\t\t