Serendipity in the stacks, fortuity in the archives

Law Library Journal

Volumn 99, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 813-827

  Hoeflich, Michael H ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 38049117510     PISSN: 00239283     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (47)

1. For a general history of the concept and linguistic development of the notion of serendipity, see ROBERT KINO MERTON & ELINOR G. BARBER, THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF SERENDIPITY: A STUDY IN HISTORICAL SEMANTICS AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENCE (2004).
2. CHRISTOFORO ARMENO, THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF THREE PRINCES OF SERENDIP, INTERMIXED WITH EIGHT DELIGHTFUL AND ENTERTAINING NOVELS (London, Chetwood 1722). On Walpole and his adaptation, see MERTON & BARBER, supra note 1, at 1-14.
3. MERTON & BARBER, supra note 1, at 20.
4. There is a vast literature on Boswell. For a current biography, see PETER MARTIN, A LIFE OF JAMES BOSWELL (2000).
5. JAMES BOSWELL, THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON (David Campbell Publishers 2000) (1791).
6. My account of the history of the Boswell papers comes from two primary sources: MARTIN, supra note 4, at 1-12;
7. DAVID BUCHANAN, THE TREASURE OF AUCHINLECK: THE STORY OF THE BOSWELL PAPERS (1974).
8. See also FREDERICK ALBERT POTTLE, PRIDE AND NEGLIGENCE: THE HISTORY OF THE BOSWELL PAPERS (1982);
9. IAN HAMILTON, KEEPERS OF THE FLAME: LITERARY ESTATES AND THE RISE OF BIOGRAPHY 63-84 (1992).
10. See BUCHANAN, supra note 6, at 26.
11. CHAUNCEY BREWSTER TINKER, YOUNG BOSWELL: CHAPTERS ON JAMES BOSWELL, THE BIOGRAPHER, BASED LARGELY ON NEW MATERIAL (1922).
12. JAMES BOSWELL, LETTERS OF JAMES BOSWELL (Chauncey Brewster Tinker ed., 1924).
13. See BUCHANAN, supra note 6, at 34-38.
14. On Boswell's law practice, see JAMES BOSWELL, BOSWELL FOR THE DEFENCE, 1769-1774, at 9 (William K Wimsatt & Frederick Albert Pottle eds., Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell, 1960);
15. JAMES BOSWELL, BOSWELL, THE APPLAUSE OF THE JURY, 1782-1785 (Irma S. Lustig & Frederick A. Pottle eds., Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell, 1981).
16. See BUCHANAN, supra note 6, at 50-54.
17. BUCHANAN, supra note 6, at 55-70.
18. See CLAUDE COLLEER ABBOTT, A CATALOGUE OF PAPERS RELATING TO BOSWELL, JOHNSON & SIR WILLIAM FORBES FOUND AT FETTERCAIRN HOUSE, A RESIDENCE OF THE RT. HON. LORD CLINTONN, 1930-1931 (1936);
19. BUCHANAN, supra note 6, at 115-29.
20. My account of the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls derives primarily from JAMES C. VANDERKAM & PETER W. FLINT, THE MEANING OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE, JUDAISM, JESUS, AND CHRISTIANITY 3-84 ( 2002);
21. see also GÉZA VERMÈS, THE COMPLETE DEAD SEA SCROLLS IN ENGLISH (rev. ed. 2004);
22. JOHN MARCO ALLEGRO, THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (1956);
23. Symposium, Surry Years with the Dead Sea Scrolls, BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY REV., May-June 2007, at 30.
24. VANDERKAM & FLINT, supra note 15, at 5-7.
25. Quoted in id. at 9.
26. Kantorowicz is best known for two works, ERNST HARTWIG KANTOROWICZ, KAISER FRIEDRICH DER ZWEITE (1927) and ERNST HARTWIG KANTOROWICZ, THE KING'S TWO BODIES: A STUDY IN MEDIAEVAL POLITICAL THEOLOGY (1957). On his life,
27. see ALAIN BOUREAU, KANTROROWICZ: STORIES OF A HISTORIAN (Stephen G. Nichols & Gabrielle M. Spiegel trans., Johns Hopkins University Press 2001) (1990).
28. ANTHONY FITZHERBERT, LA NOUVELLE NATURA BREVIUM (1534).
29. JAMES BONAR, A CATALOGUE OF THE LIBRARY OF ADAM SMITH, AUTHOR OF THE "MORAL SENTIMENTS" AND "THE WEALTH OF NATIONS" (2d ed. 1966);
30. HIROSHI MIZUTA, ADAM SMITH'S LIBRARY: A SUPPLEMENT TO BONAR'S CATALOGUE WITH A CHECKLIST OF THE WHOLE LIBRARY (1967).
31. I subsequently discovered that Professor Richard Pfaff had mentioned this letter in his biography of James. RICHARD WILLIAM PFAFF, MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES 264 (1980).
32. E.g., M.R. JAMES, A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE MANUSCRIPTS IN THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM (Cambridge, University Press 1895);
33. MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES, A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE MANUSCRIPTS, OTHER THAN ORIENTAL, IN THE LIBRARY OF KING'S COLLEOE, CAMBRIDGE (Cambridge, University Press 1895);
34. M.R. JAMES, A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE MANUSCRIPTS IN THE LIBRARY OF ETON COLLEGE (Cambridge, University Press 1895). Nonetheless, James was, perhaps, better known to the world at large as the author of M.R. JAMES, GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY (Dover Publications 1971) (1904).
35. DeLloyd J. Guth & M.H. Hoeflich, F. W. Maitland and Roman Law: An Uncollected Letter, with Comments and Notes, 1982 U. III. L. REV. 441.
36. MICHAEL H. HOEFLICH & KAREN S. BECK, THE 1846 AUCTION CATALOGUE OF JOSEPH STORY'S LIBRARY (Tarlton Law Library Legal History Series No, 5, 2004).
37. MICHAEL H. HOEFLICH ET AL., THE 1877 SALE CATALOGUE OF GUSTAVUS SCHMIDT'S LIBRARY (Tarlton Law Library Legal History Series No. 6, 2005).
38. On Kent's reading habits, see John H. Langbein, Chancellor Kent and The History of Legal Literature, 93 COLUM. L. REV. 547 (1993).
39. JAMES KENT, COMMENTARIES ON AMERICAN LAW (O. W. Holmes ed., 12th ed., Boston, Little, Brown, and Co. 1873).
40. GEORGE L. MCKAY, AMERICAN BOOK AUCTION CATALOGUES, 1713-1934, A UNION LIST (Gale Research Co. 1967) (1935). It is possible, but in my opinion unlikely, that Holmes had a copy of a manuscript rather than a sale catalogue.
41. ARLETTE FARCE, LE GOÛT DE L'ARCHIVE (1989).
42. Id. at 18 ("L'archive petrifie ces moments au hasard. . . .").
43. JORGE LUIS BORGES, THE LIBRARY OF BABEL 29 (Andrew Hurley trans., David R. Godine 2000).
44. Paul Wallich, Fading Memory (letter), Tech. Rev., Sept. 2005, at 16, 16.
45. See also Richard Byrne, 20 Years of Archival Ambition, CHRON. HIGHER EDUC., Aug. 3, 2007, at AlO (interview with Thomas F. Staley, Director, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Univ. of Texas at Austin).
46. See NICHOLSON BAKER, DOUBLE FOLD: LIBRARIES AND THE ASSAULT ON PAPER (2001).
47. FARGE, supra note 29, at 23 (translated by the author).