First published in 1996, The William Makepeace Thackeray Library is a collection of works written by and about the novelist. This fifth volume contains the memoir of Eyre Crowe, who accompanied Thackeray on his tour of America. The account offers an outsider’s glimpse into the professional and public world of William Thackeray whilst on his tour of the United States. It provides the itinerary of the trip, as well as images of the places and people met on the tour, which the reader could not obtain from Thackeray’s letters alone. The introduction by Richard Pearson discusses Crowe and Thackeray’s relationship, Thackeray’s role as a public speaker and his opinion on slavery, a heated issue in both England and America at the time.

This book will be of interest to those studying Thackeray and nineteenth-century travel writing and literature.