Just Published: Professor Coquillette's "Portrait of a Patriot"

Our great colleague, benefactor, and friend Daniel R. Coquillette has just completed his five-volume series: Portrait of a Patriot: The Major Political and Legal Papers of Josiah Quincy Junior, co-edited with Neil Longley York. This monumental series was published by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and distributed by the University of Virginia Press.

We are all very excited about this. It's a great work of scholarship, bringing long-hidden sources to light for the first time. It's also one heck of a good story. Just one example: in the Southern Journal (volume 3) Quincy details his journey through the south, and offers candid reactions to southern slavery, commerce, education, and social customs. Fascinating reading.

In researching these books, Professor Coquillette and his team used sources from the special collections of a number of libraries, including the Harvard Law Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and our own Rare Book Room. I join Professor Coquillette in giving a special shout-out to my library colleague Mark Sullivan, who researched numerous points in all five volumes, and wrote an outstanding essay in volume 5 entitled "'Phantom' References to Quincy's Reports in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Reports."

Congratulations to Professor Coquillette, and to everyone involved!