The Carlyle Letters Online find new home at Hunter Library
Brent Kinser
By Cam Adams
Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle have been significant figures to several scholars throughout the last century and some change. Western Carolina University English professor Brent Kinser is no exception.
For the last 24 years, Kinser has worked with several colleagues to preserve their works, which range from Thomas鈥� history of the French Revolution to his biography of Fredrick the Great.
The digital iteration of the Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle has bounced around between different homes throughout that time 鈥� but now, it鈥檚 just a stone鈥檚 throw away from Kinser鈥檚 office in Coulter.
91热爆网鈥檚 Hunter Library is now home to the Carlyle Letters Online, a digital archive based on the Duke-Edinburgh edition of the letters. Kinser has been working with technologists at 91热爆网 and Texas A&M University Libraries to bring the Carlyle Letters Online to Hunter since March.
鈥淚t means a lot to me both professionally and personally,鈥� Kinser said. 鈥淚've spent a lot of time on this project for the last 24 years, and to finally have it at my home institution where I can actually take care of it more visibly (is great).
鈥淭his institution has always been very supportive in my work, so now that it's here, I feel like it's in a much more secure place, so it means a lot.鈥�
Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, a married couple from Scotland, were a pair of highly regarded 19th century writers.
They were 鈥渢wo of the Victorian world鈥檚 most accomplished, perceptive and unusual inhabitants,鈥� and their letters are 鈥渞egarded as one of the finest and most comprehensive literary archives of the 19th century,鈥� according to Duke University Press.
In the 1950s, Charles Richard Sanders, a professor from Duke, decided to start locating and collecting the letters and made a partnership with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Thomas鈥� alma mater.
The first four volumes of the project were published in 1970, and there are now 50 in total, with the final published in 2023.
Kinser joined the project in 2001 and served as co-editor for volumes 35-50 and as an assistant or associate editor for volumes 31-34.
鈥淣ow that it's here, I have greater access, I can get more students involved, I can do new projects and seek other kinds of grant funding for development,鈥� Kinser said. 鈥淪o far as one can predict the future, it has made the future of the project a lot brighter.鈥�