The Carlyle Letters

The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, Duke-Edinburgh edition.

The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, Duke-Edinburgh edition (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1970 to 2023) was one of the major editorial projects in Victorian studies of the last half-century.

Charles Richard Sanders of Duke University began the edition during the 1950s with a wide-ranging search for surviving manuscript letters, the number of which eventually grew to exceed 10,000.

The search went from the National Library of Scotland (which holds the world’s largest collection of Carlyle manuscripts) to the many other major libraries with substantial Carlyle holdings, including Edinburgh University Library.

Originally a joint venture between the University of Edinburgh (UoE) and Duke University, the project became a joint venture between UoE and Duke University Press in Durham, North Carolina.

Since the publication of the first four volumes in 1970, the edition has produced a further 46 fully-edited, annotated and indexed volumes - 50 print volumes in total.

The scale of the edition is formidable, but so is the richness of the material. Both Carlyles were very gifted and prolific letter-writers; they had a wide circle of friends, family and acquaintance in Scotland, England, Europe and North America; through their letters they interacted with many of the outstanding writers, thinkers and political figures of their time.

The Duke-Edinburgh print edition has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy in the UK and by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation in the US. It has been honoured and recognised both for its editing and its re-establishment of the Carlyles as pivotal figures in our understanding of the 19th century.

Editors

For many years, the Senior Editors were K. J. Fielding, Saintsbury Professor of English, University of Edinburgh, and Clyde de L. Ryals, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

From Volume 36 onwards, the Senior Editors were:

Ian Campbell, University of Edinburgh
Aileen Christianson, University of Edinburgh
David Sorensen, St Joseph’s University, Philadelphia

Browse the full editorial team on the Carlyle Letters Online website

Ian Campbell

“Carlyle and Education” in "Thomas Carlyle Resartus", eds. P. Kerry and M. Hill - 2010
ed. T. Carlyle, "Reminiscences" (new ed, revised OUP edn. with K.J.Fielding, 1997) - 2009
"Carlylus Tyrannus" - 2009
"Thomas Carlyle" - reprint 1993

Aileen Christianson

Jane Welsh Carlyle, Biography and Biographers - 2008
"Moving in Circles: Willa Muir’s Writings" - 2007
"Jane Welsh Carlyle’s Private Writing Career" in "A History of Scottish Women’s Writing", eds. D. Gifford and D. McMillan - 1997

Aileen Christianson & Sheila McIntosh

"Lives of Victorian Literary Figures III; The Carlyles" - 2005

Katherine Inglis

Thomas Carlyle's Laystall and Charles Dickens's Paper-Mill', Carlyle Studies Annual (2011)

Search Edinburgh Research Explorer for related publications by the editors

Advisory Group

The Advisory Group in Edinburgh was introduced in 2009.

Its remit was to:

oversee finance and fundraising
give advice on broadening the project's impact on the wider community
give advice with the transition to final volumes of the Letters after publication of Volume 43
oversee the evolution of the editorial team

The Advisory Group consisted of Professors:

William Christie (Sydney University)
Kathy Chamberlain (City University of New York, emeritus)
Glenda Norquay (Liverpool John Moores University)
Lindsay Paterson (University of Edinburgh)

Ian Campbell, one of the Senior Editors, was also a member. The board was convened by Aileen Christianson.