A Burning Question Answered: The Manuscript of TC to William Graham, 22 April 1835

THE MISCELLANIES OF CAR LYLE STUDIES ANNUAL 30 FEATURES A transcription of Thomas Carlyle to William Graham, 22 April 1835.1 This astonishing letter included Carlyle's most complete and vivid account of the burning of the manuscript of The French Revolution. Brent E. Kinser concluded his introduction with guarded optimism:If the letter is a forgery, then it is a well-conceived and rendered one. Given that the correspondence between Graham and Carlyle was not published until 1950, it seems possible that this letter is legitimate. If true, then one burning question remains: the location of the manuscript. (160)In December 2015, Melvin Schuetz of the Armstrong Browning Library sent an email to the editors of CSA to inform them of a letter sold on 3 June 1997 by Swann Auction Galleries, New York. The announcement suggested that this letter was in fact TC to William Graham, 22 April 1835.2 Marco Tomaschett at Swann Galleries offered to contact the current owner to determine that person's willingness to share an image of the letter with the editors, so that it could be transcribed for publication in the CSA and ultimately in The Carlyle Letters Online. It is published here with the kind permission of that owner, who wishes to remain anonymous.As for the letter, there are several interesting accidental and substantive differences from the previously published version. Of particular note in North's typescript transcription is the phrase "Fliche von Allen" (CSA 30: 159). The footnote duly observes that the phrase is German, meaning "a side of bacon for all" (159n25). The manuscript of the letter reads "Fluch vor allen" (below, p. 257), German for "curse above all," a quote from Goethe's Faust 1. During Faust's first conversation with Mephistopheles he curses wine, love, hope, faith, and "above all" patience. The most significant substantive omission follows this phrase at the end of the paragraph. In the North typescript, the paragraph ends "Believe what we will, I must struggle to make it good again, and then we will talk" (CSA 30: 159). The manuscript reads, "Believe what we will, I must struggle to make it good again, in which enterprise the bilious stupidity of this spring weather proves little furthersome. Do not speak of it to any mortal;-till I have it right again, and then we will talk" (below, p. 258). It may be the most poignantly descriptive moment in any of Carlyle's three accounts of the catastrophe.The editors are deeply grateful to Melvin Schuetz, Marco Tomaschett, and the owner of the letter for their generosity in bringing this letter to the editors' attention, for providing an image of the manuscript, and for allowing its publication. The location of the manuscript may still remain somewhat of a mystery, but the burning question is answered in a most satisfying manner.Brent E. KinserTC to WG, 22 April 1835; ALS, 4 pp. MS: Auctioned by Swann Galleries, 3 June 1997; Privately held.[Editor's Note: Differences between the MS transcription and the previously published typescript transcription are denoted by bold font text.]22nd April, 1835My dear friend,Thanks for your good kind letter, which was right welcome to me; welcome and wholesome: like some fresh rural breath, as of new-mown hay, amid the confused artificial City vapours,-some of which are not the sweetest. Post obit, we observed, had put certain marks on the sheet, and was taken as it were "with the red hand": clean again law!3 However, I would not have quarrelled with that, had it only subdued your unbelieving humour, and made you write sooner. Think that Annandale is my old rough nursing mother; whom, with all her crabbed ways, I must ever have a son's love to: poor old Annandale, hard and heathery are her hills, stinted, rude her life; but when I forget her, may my right hand forget its cunning!You are not to take this as an Answer; but as an acknowledgment that an Answer were due. The seed-corn once well in the ground, and bright summer calling your thoughts all out of doors, you will write to me again. …