Guide to the Thomas Carlyle Letters, 1820-1854, undated
Thomas Carlyle Letters, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine
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Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was a Scottish-born British essayist and historian educated at the University of Edinburgh. As a young man he worked as a teacher and schoolmaster (1814-19), studied law and tutored privately (1819-24), but was unsatisfied with the work and turned to writing. In 1834 he moved to London where he established himself as one of the foremost authors and men of letters of his day.
German language and literature always held a special place in Carlyle's heart; he published an English translation of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship in 1824. This and other early writings for the London Magazine and the Edinburgh Review were the beginnings of his literary career. Other works included Sartor Resartus (1836), The French Revolution (1837), On Heroes and Hero-Worship (1841), Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches (1845), Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850) and History of Friedrich the Second, Called Frederick the Great (1858-65).
Carlyle married Jane Welsh in 1826 and, though theirs was a stormy and difficult marriage, he never fully recovered from her death in 1866. He published Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle in 1883.
The collection consists almost entirely of letters (1820-1854) from Carlyle to his friend, William Graham (b.1770), a Scottish shipping merchant and, later, gentleman sheep farmer; together with typescripts of Graham's letters to Carlyle. Many of these letters have been published in the Letters of Thomas Carlyle to William Graham (1950).
Information on Carlyle's works is available in the papers of Isaac Dyer. Dyer was his first bibliographer.
1820 Sep 15
1820 Oct 19
1821 Jan 28
1821 Apr 24
1821 Jun 12
1821 Dec 15
[1822 Jul]
1822 Oct 30
1822 Dec 21
1823 Apr 24
1831 Oct 17
1834 Aug 5
1834 Sep 14
1834 Dec 24
1835 Jan 10
1835 Sep 25
1838 May 10
1840 Oct 31
1842 Mar 21
1843 Feb 27
1843 Dec 20
1844 Mar 29
1849 Nov 8
1854 Feb 19 [Thomas?] Carlyle to [William Graham?]
1854 Apr 11 [Thomas?] Carlyle to [William Graham?]
Monday Night [n.d.]
[n.d.]
1820-1835: William Graham to Thomas Carlyle, typescript copies [49 pp.]
J.A. Fraude to [?], November 30, [n.y.]