Frederick A. Pottle

Frederick A. Pottle was born in Center Lovell, Maine, on August 3, 1897. He earned a BA from Colby College and an MA from Yale University. Pottle taught at Hebron Academy in Maine, then served in the U.S. Army, which stationed him in France from 1917 to 1919. He earned his PhD from Yale in 1925.

In 1930, Pottle became a professor at Yale, where he chaired the English department from 1932 to 1933. In 1935, he founded Colby Library Associates at his alma mater and served as its president until 1960. In 1944, Pottle was named Sterling Professor at Yale, the highest academic honor bestowed at the institution. Pottle was the chief editor, then chairman emeritus, of the Boswell Papers at Yale, now part of the Boswell Collection. He retired from Yale in 1966.

Pottle was the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and honorary degrees from Colby College, Northwestern University, Rutgers University, and the University of Glasgow. He served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1950 to 1960, and from 1962 to 1974. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters.

Pottle died on May 16, 1987, in New Haven, Connecticut.