Thomas Carlyle

Chartism (1840) Thomas Carlyle

Carlyle was born in 1795 in Ecclefechan in Dumfriesshire. His parents determinedly afforded him an education at Annan Academy, Annan, where he was bullied and tormented so much that he left after three years. His father was a member of the Burgher secession Presbyterian church. In early life, his family's (and nation's) strong Calvinist beliefs powerfully influenced the young man. After attending the University of Edinburgh, Carlyle became a mathematics teacher, first in Annan and then in Kirkcaldy, where he became close friends with the mystic Edward Irving. (Confusingly, there is another Scottish Thomas Carlyle, born a few years later, connected to Irving via work with the Catholic Apostolic Church. In 1819-21, Carlyle returned to the University of Edinburgh, where he suffered an intense crisis of faith and conversion, which provided the material for Sartor Resartus ("The Tailor Re-tailored"), which first brought him to the public's notice. Carlyle developed a painful stomach ailment, possibly gastric ulcers, that remained throughout his life and likely contributed to his reputation as a crotchety, argumentative, somewhat disagreeable personality. His prose style, famously cranky and occasionally savage, helped cement an air of irascibility.