Carlyle, Thomas

A holograph manuscript, 1854-1867, of the essay Prinzebraub .

Thomas Carlyle was born in Ecclefechan, Annandale, Scotland on 4 December 1795. Brought up as a strict Calvinist, he was educated at the village school, Annan Academy and Edinburgh University (1809-1814) where he studied science and mathematics. After graduating from university he became a teacher at Kirkcaldy.

In 1818 he moved to Edinburgh where he worked on translating German authors. Whilst in Edinburgh he also wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia and the Edinburgh Review . After spending two years in Edinburgh he moved to an isolated hill farm, Graigenputtoch, Dumfriesshire. At Graigenputtoch he worked on the Sartor Resartus , which was published in 1836. Carlyle moved to Chelsea, London in 1834, where he continued to give lectures, write articles, essays and books on many subjects including, history, philosophy and politics. He also contributed essays to the Westminster Review . Carlyle died age 85 in London on 5 February 1881.

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University of London Library, The Sterling library: a catalogue of the printed books and literary manuscripts collected by Sir Louis Sterling and presented by him to the University of London , Cambridge, (1954).

The National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, holds manuscripts, proofs and letters (Ref: Forster Collection), and letters to John Forster, 1839-1875 (Ref: Forster Collection); the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, has correspondence and papers, [1812-1881] (Ref: MSS 511-656; 787; 1763-1808; 7197), family correspondence and papers, 1811-1879 (Ref: Acc 9086), letters to William Allingham, 1850-[1880] (Ref: MS 3823), letters to the Baring family, [1840]-1877 (Ref: Acc 11388), letters to Sir Arthur Helps, 1851-1871 (Ref: MS 3823 ff. 199-223), letters to David Hope, 1840-1854, letters to Robert Horn, 1874-1875 (Ref: MS 3706), letters to Thomas Murray, 1813-1865 (Ref: MS 8992), letters to Lady Sandwich, 1850-1862 (Ref: Adv MS 19 3 52), and family and other correspondence, 1836-1867; the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, contain correspondence with Robert Mitchell and family, 1814-1842 (Ref: GD1/714); the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, holds pocket books (Ref: MS Don d53); the William R Perkins Library, Duke University, North Carolina, USA, has letters and papers, 1809-1927; the Huntington Library, California, USA, contains letters, papers and literary manuscripts, 1835-1874; the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, USA, holds correspondence and papers, 1825-1870 (Ref: NUC MS 84-2141); the University Of Toronto Library, Canada, has family correspondence, 1832-1868; the Beinecke Library, Yale University, Connecticut, USA, contains papers and letters; Edinburgh Central Library holds letters (Ref: NRA(S)0870); McMaster University Library, Ontario, Canada, contains correspondence with Alexander Carlyle, 1814-1881; Edinburgh University Library holds letters to Charles Butler, 1857-1861, letters to J Johnstone, 1817-1825 (Ref: Dc.4.94), letters to David Laing, 1841-1874 (Ref: La iv 4), and letters, 1817-1871 (Ref: AAF); the National Library of Australia, Canberra, contains letters to Alfred Deakin (Ref: 3296A); the National Library of Ireland, Dublin, holds letters to the Rt Hon Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, 1846-1854 (Ref: Mss 5756-5757); the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA, has correspondence with Ralph Waldo Emerson, letters and literary manuscripts; Cambridge University Library contains correspondence with Edward Fitzgerald, 1842-1846 (Ref: Add 7062); Trinity College Library, Cambridge University, holds letters to Richard Monckton Miles, 1st Baron Houghton, 1818-1866; the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, has correspondence with Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury, 1840-1849; the British Library, London, contains letters to James Marshall, 1847-1871 (Ref: Eg MS 3032), letters to Macvey Napier, 1830-1841 (Ref: Add MSS 34614-5, 34621-2), letters to the Royal Literary Fund, 1848-1877 (Ref: Loan 96), letters to Mr and Mrs R Smith, 1874 (Ref: Add MS 44885A), and correspondence, 1836-1862 (Ref: RP 392, 402); the Ruskin Library, Lancaster, holds correspondence with John Ruskin (Ref: BXIV); the John Rylands University Library of Manchester has letters to John Ruskin and John James Ruskin, 1855-1874 (Ref: MS 1191), and letters, 1820-1853 (Ref: Eng MS 336); Mirehouse, Keswick, contains correspondence with Thomas Spedding; Glasgow City Archives hold letters to the Rt Hon Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Bt, 1848-1874 (Ref: T-SK 29.3-27); Somerset Archive and Record Service, Taunton, has letters to Sir Edward Strachey, 3rd Bt, 1838-1858 (Ref: DD/SH/71); the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, contains correspondence with John Tyndall (Ref: Tyndall papers, 6/F2-6/F4,6/F9); Kirkcaldy Art Gallery and Museum holds miscellaneous papers relating to Kirkcaldy, 1816 (Ref: NRA(S)0744); the Hornel Library, Kirkcudbright, has letters and family letters, 1819-1878 (Ref: NRA(S)0118Y).

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