BIB_ID
284756
Accession number
MA 741.36
Creator
Carlyle, Thomas, 1795-1881.
Display Date
1849 Dec. 7.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, before 1913.
Description
1 item (4 p.) ; 18.2 cm
Notes
Part of a bound collection of 56 letters and notes from Thomas Carlyle, 7 signed receipts, 4 prints, and a photograph; items in the collection are described individually (MA 741.1-68).
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan before 1913 from the London dealer J. Pearson & Co.
Summary
Noting that he "used to think, having plenty to say was a grand thing; but now [he] find[s] it rather worse than having nothing"; comparing his current project to a "mass of mud and street-sweepings": "at what corner to begin is and has long been a desperate mystery! For most part, I stand leaning on my shovel, looking at it with mere helpless dismay, unable to strike in anywhere with decision or fixed purpose"; arranging a financial transaction; noting that "Miss Brightwell's etchings" need dates on them.
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