Chapter 2

Thackeray. The Yellowplush Correspondence. New York: Carey & Hart, 1838. HEW 12.7.6.

• Complete Image
• HOLLIS Catalog Entry

Thackeray publishes The Yellowplush Correspondence (New York: Carey & Hart, 1838)

In the early years of his marriage, Thackeray’s main source of income was writing for periodicals. His first longer works of fiction appeared in the popular periodical Fraser’s. In November 1837, the first number of “The Yellowplush Correspondence” appeared, which documented the adventures of Charles James Yellowplush, a “sometime footman in many genteel families” who holds that “to describe fashnabble life, ONE OF US must do the thing, to do it well.” Displayed here is the first American edition of the collected Yellowplushstories, and the first appearance anywhere of Thackeray’s written work in book form.

HEW 12.7.6. Harry Elkins Widener collection.