Thomas Carlyle was born on December 4, 1795. After attending Annan Academy and Edinburgh University, he taught mathematics for a time before finding his vocation as one of the foremost essayists, biographers, and historians of his century. At first he devoted himself to introducing German literature into English in translation, but his reputation stands on his original prose: Sartor Resartus (1834), History of the French Revolution (1837), Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic (1840), Past and Present (1843), and Frederick the Great (1858-65). The little poetry he published was composed before 1840 and appears as an appendix in his volumes of essays, but they have a popularity far greater than their number or their academic rating would suggest. The death of his life-long partner and wife, Jane Welsh, in 1866 brought an end to his great writing. Carlyle died on February 5, 1881, and is buried at Ecclefechan.

• Carlyle, Thomas. "Appendix." Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. Vol. I. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. [the poems]
• --. Works. Ed. H. D. Traill. 30 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897-99.
• Kaplan, Fred. Thomas Carlyle: A Biography. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1983. PR 4433 K3
• Kaplan, Fred. “Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
• Tarr, Rodger L. Thomas Carlyle: A Descriptive Bibliography. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989. Z 8147 T38 Robarts Library