SELECTED LETTERS OF WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY Also by Edgar E Harden THE EMERGENCE OF THACKERAY'S SERIAL FICTION THACKERAY'S 'ENGLISH HUMOURISTS' AND 'FOUR GEORGES' W. M. THACKERAY: HENRY ESMOND (editor) ANNOTATIONS FOR THE SELECTED WORKS OF W. M. THACKERAY: The Complete Novels, the Major Non-Fictional Prose and Selected Shorter Pieces (editor) THE LETTERS AND PRIVATE PAPERS OF WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY: A Supplement (editor) Selected Letters of Williatn Makepeace Thackeray Edited by Edgar F. Harden 111 Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-14075-6 ISBN 978-1-349-14073-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-14073-2 Selection and editorial matter © Edgar F. Harden 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 978-0-333-66073-7 All rights reserved First published in the U.S.A. in 1996 by NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS Washington Square New York, N.Y. 10003 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863. [Correspondence. Selections] Selected letters of William Makepeace Thackeray I edited by Edgar F. Harden. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8147-3546-6 I. Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863-Correspondence. 2. Novelists, English-19th century-Correspondence. I. Harden, Edgar F. II. Title. PR563l.A4 1996 823'.8-dc20 96-21335 CIP For Belinda Norman-Butler Contents Preface ix Chronology xi Introduction XV List of Letters xxiii List of Repositories xxxiii The Letters 1 Further Reading 377 Index 379 vii PREFACE These letters have been selected according to two principles: their ability to convey the essential biographical developments of a very interesting life, and their ability to represent highly characteristic verbal and pictorial expressions of a great man of letters. Therefore I shall include not only written utterances addressed to other identifiable human beings, but also those addressed to the partly externalized, and therefore of course partly imagined, audiences of his diaries, which include a memorably expressive prayer to mankind's most important imagined audience: God. In this wish to convey to readers Thackeray in his most revealing forms of personal expression, I have occasionally omitted portions of early journal letters and diaries, though always with clear indication of doing so (#2-5, 14, 17, 28, 33). Those readers wishing to to go on and read the complete correspondence should consult The Leners and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, four volumes of which, edited by the late Gordon N. Ray, appeared in 1945-46, and two supplementary volumes of which, edited by myself, appeared in 1994. Letters that were published in the Ray volumes have been newly edited for their appearance here; such letters and those taken from my two volumes have also been newly annotated for a different reading public. Since this edition is addressed to a general audience, most of Thackeray's professional letters to his publishers have been omitted, but a number of them have necessarily been included to remind the reader of the extraordinary energies of Thackeray's engagement with the profession of writing, and of his sometimes desperate and endlessly prolonged need to support himself financially, and to leave an inheritance for the adequate maintenance of his insane wife, who ultimately outlived him by over thirty years, and of his young daughters. The letters are transcribed literally, with the exception of unintended repetitions (e. g. "to to"), cancelled matter, and superscript portions of words. All editorial insertions appear within square brackets. When Thackeray misspells a proper name, the correct form appears in an annotation and in the index. All of Thackeray's postscripts appear at the foot of the text after the signature, even though they may be squeezed in at the top and side of the original letter. Manuscript addresses, postmarks, and endorsements are X PREFACE ignored; specialist readers can find them in the six volumes of collected letters. For permission to publish letters in their possession I should like gratefully to acknowledge the following: Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University; Special Collections, Mugar Library, Boston University; Brigham Young University Library; the British Library; Syndics of the Cambridge University Library; Archives, Charterhouse School, and the kind permission of the Governing Body; Chatsworth Settlement Trustees; Dartmouth College Library; Detroit Public Library; Fitzwilliam Museum; Houghton Library, Harvard University; Hertfordshire Record Office; Huntington Library; Hugh Walpole Collection, King's School, Canterbury; Brotherton Collection, Leeds University Library; Pierpont Morgan Library; National Library of Scotland; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations; Fales Library, New York University; Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; University of Pittsburgh Library; Parrish and Taylor Collections, Princeton University Library; Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester Library; Rosenbach Museum and Library; South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina; A. H. Stirling; Strathclyde Regional Archives; Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; The Master and Fellows, Trinity College, Cambridge University; Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand; Alderman Library, University of Virginia; and Beinecke Library, Yale University. For vital assistance with this project, I wish to express my appreciation to the predecessors who have published Thackeray correspondence, notably of course the late Gordon N. Ray; to the many librarians and curators who have helped me over the years; to individual scholars who have provided me with specific information and who have supported my application for the grant support that has enabled this volume to come into being; to my research assistant, Susan MacFarlane; to Margaret Sharon, Computing Services, Simon Fraser University, and to Anita Mahoney, Dean of Arts Office, Simon Fraser University, for computing assistance; to the National Endowment for the Humanities, which furnished funds that made possible the editing of two final volumes of the collected letters, on which this selection partly draws; to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which provided funds for the preparation of this volume; and to Mrs. Edward Norman-Butler, whose continuing support over many years has prompted the dedication of this volume to her. CHRONOLOGY 1811 Bom in Calcutta, the only child of Richmond Thackeray, a prosperous official of the British East India Company, and Anne Becher Thackeray. 1815 Father dies, leaving a large estate. 1817 Comes to England. Mother, still in India, marries Captain Henry Carmichael-Smytb. 1817-21 Attends school in Southampton, then in Chiswick. 1820 Mother and step-father come to England. 1822-28 Attends Charterhouse School. 1829-30 Attends Trinity College Cambridge; has notable gambling losses; leaves without a degree. 1830-31 In Weimar. 1831-33 In London as law student and later as journalist. 1833 Loses most of his inheritance in the failure of an Indian bank. 1833-37 In Paris as art student and journalist. 1836 Publishes Flore et zephyr, a collection of eight captioned lithographs. Marries Isabella Shawe, member of an Anglo­ Irish family. 1837 Settles in London writing reviews, articles, and short comic fiction for magazines. Birth of daughter Anne. 1837-38 Publishes The Yellowplush Papers serially with authorial illustrations in Fraser's Magazine. 1838 Birth of daughter Jane (who dies in 1839). xu CHRONOLOGY 1839-40 Publishes Catherine serially with authorial illustrations in Fraser's Magazine. 1840 Birth of daughter Harriet. Publishes A Shabby Genteel Story in Fraser's Magazine. Publishes The Paris Sketch Book, a two-volume collection of earlier magazine pieces and new work, with authorial illustrations. Wife becomes permanently insane. 1841 Publishes Comic Tales and Sketches, a two-volume collection of earlier magazine pieces, with authorial illustrations. 1842 Begins contributions to Punch. Travels in Ireland. 1843 Publishes The Irish Sketch Book in two volumes with authorial illustrations. 1844 Publishes Barry Lyndon serially in Fraser's Magazine. 1844-45 Travels through the Mediterranean to the Near East. 1846 Publishes Notes of a Journey from Comhill to Grand Cairo in one volume. 1846-47 Publishes The Book of Snobs serially with authorial illustrations in Punch. 1847-48 Publishes Vanity Fair serially with authorial illustrations in monthly parts. 1848-50 Publishes Pendennis serially with authorial illustrations in monthly parts. 1851-53 Lectures in England, Scotland, and America on the English humorists of the eighteenth century. 1852 Publishes Henry Esmond in three volumes. 1853 Publishes The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century in one volume. 1853-55 Publishes The Newcomes serially with illustrations by Richard Doyle in monthly parts. CHRONOLOGY xiii 1855-57 Lectures in America, Scotland, and England on the four Georges. 1857-59 Publishes The Virginians serially with authorial illustrations in monthly parts. 1860 Becomes first editor of The Comhill Magazine, where he publishes Lovel the Widower and The Four Georges serially with authorial illustrations. 1860-63 Publishes Roundabout Papers serially with authorial illustrations in The Comhill Magazine. 1861-62 Publishes Philip serially with authorial illustrations and illustrations by Frederick Walker in The Cornhill