All In?

One of the most successful literary treasure hunts of the past 25 years has been the pursuit of the scattered manuscripts and correspondence of Sam Johnson's gossipy biographer, James Boswell (TIME, March 9, 1936, et seq.).

When a cache of Boswell's private papers turned up in Ireland's Malahide Castle in the mid-'20s scholars promptly agreed it was the greatest literary find of the century. In 1930, rummagers at Malahide poked into an old croquet box, found more. In 1931, a third cache was uncovered in Scotland's Fettercairn House, squirreled away in storerooms and a nursery cupboard. In 1937, a fourth find was made at Malahide, and two years later another, this time in a heap of papers stored over an unused stable. Last week, to slightly winded Boswell scholars around the world, came word of Find No. 6.

The latest batch of Boswelliana (more than 500 items) was discovered by the present Lord Talbot de Malahide, who launched a treasure hunt of his own after inheriting the title in 1948 from Boswell's great-great-grandson. In accordance with the arrangement his family had made, he sold the papers to Lieut. Colonel Ralph H. Isham, Manhattan Boswell collector who has purchased all the Malahide and Fettercairn finds. By last week the collecting colonel had sold them in turn to his old alma mater, Yale.

Even without the new additions, Yale custodians had years of editing and assorting ahead of them. Now they had more than 1,000 additional manuscript pages from the Life of Johnson and Tour to the Hebrides. There were also such tidbits as a report to Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Boswell's own love affairs, and a verdict on Dr. Johnson's old friend, Mrs. Thrale (". . . For all her care and attention she was amply repaid by the gratification of her vanity in having so great a man ... to use, as it were, in her possession . . .").

On another page, scholars found a typical bit of Boswell soul-searching. "I am a weaker man than can well be imagined," he wrote. "My brilliant qualities are like embroidery upon gauze." By last week, Yale was happy to say that the embroidery was probably at last all in.

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