Thomas Carlyle

CARLYLE, Thomas. b. Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, 4 December 1795; d. London, 5 February 1881. He was the son of a stonemason. He was educated at Annan Academy and the University of Edinburgh. He would normally have been expected to become a minister in the Church of Scotland, but he developed views which prevented him from entering the ministry and he became a schoolmaster, first at Annan (1815-16) and then at Kirkcaldy, Fife (1816-18). By December 1818 he had saved enough money to allow him to move to Edinburgh, where he supported himself by writing and working as a private tutor. His first field of interest was German literature, and he published a life of Schiller in the London...