Beschreibung:

Thomas Carlyle
Twelve letters, four autograph and eight dictated to Mary Aitken (of which all but one signed with weak and shaky late signatures, three signed in pencil), to siblings: 
i) Four letters to his brother Dr John Carlyle (1801-79), discussing his own books, which he was then rereading, his disappointment in reading Russian literature, current events ("...there is endless nonsense about treacherous Dizzy as indeed there is about all things..."), his health and the deaths of friends including G.H. Lewes, his wish that they could meet in person, and the diluted pleasure he takes in his daily drives ("...The enlargement of London has for one thing made it quite a Dead alian [sic] labyrinth..."), 16 pages, 8vo, 24 Cheyne Row, 28 September to 6 December 1878, one letter with marginal tears
ii) Eight letters to his sister Jean Aitken (1810-88), sending personal and family news, including visits to London of their brother James ("...his visit seemed to be agreeable to himself. as certainly it was to me - and well worth any trouble [...] it cost me, walking him about &c, and talking with him instead of my out poor thoughts..."), also with news of friends including John Ruskin, two of the letters written for New Year ("...a little new Year's day Memorial from your eldest Brother..."), complaining of his weak health and personal circumstances ("...The grim, angry ever-changing Winter weather, all coated deep at present in frozen snow, tries my old skin more sharply than ever it did before..."), also discussing his ongoing research into portraits of John Knox ("...It is essentially a homage done to the noble Patriot & Reformer Knox, and tends sooner or later to record, ultimately one may hope for all Scotland, what the likeness of their Grandest Scotsman was..."), 27 pages, 8vo and 12mo, the four autograph letters all written on the unused pages of letters received by Carlyle, 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 23 April 1862 to 22 June 1878
"Cromwell [...] is nothing like so interesting to me as Frederick [the Great] was [...] It is not that I find the work ill-written [...] but Frederick was far more difficult & may turn out to be still usefuller to the world as it now stands..." (Thomas Carlyle to his brother John, 28 September 1878)
These letters provide a vivid impression of Carlyle's last years: his daily life constrained by his physical ailments, writing made impossible by the tremor in his hands, but his mind as restless and active as ever. They are written to his younger brother John, the most literary of Thomas's siblings and the brother to whom he was closest, and to his second-youngest sister Jean (known in the family as "Craw Jean"). These letters are not found in Collected Letters: Volume 50, 1875-81 (2022) so are apparently unpublished and unrecorded. 
PROVENANCE:Alexander Carlyle (1843-1931) and Mary Carlyle Aitken (1848-95); thence by direct descent