Henry Thrale, M.P.

Importance in the history of English literature

It was important because it was almost, if not quite, the first English Ana. The title given to the books also betrays the purpose for which they were destined. Hester was beginning an English 'ana', undoubtedly modelled after the many French anas with which she was familiar, and which she extravagantly liked, as she revealed in 1780 when she wrote:

I talk now of nothing but French Literature--these Anas have seized me so.

She quotes them frequently through all the volumes of the Thraliana, and, with the assistance of her friend William Seward (1747-1799, anecdotalist and son of a wealthy brewer of the firm Calvert and Seward), she formed a collection of them amounting to thirty-one titles.

When Hester began writing Thraliana, she had no real English precedent. Although French literature 'swarmed' with examples, there was, as she later said, nothing analogous in English but: John Selden's Table Talk; and William Camden and his published Remains. Joseph Spence had already collected his 'Anecdotes', which Hester examined in manuscript in May 1778, when Dr. Johnson had the loan of them from Henry Pelham-Clinton (2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne), but these were unknown to her when she began Thraliana two years earlier.

The English commonplace book was still to be met with in Hester's day, although its vogue was already going out, its character was distinct from the Ana, being a collection of pious or beautiful quotations, rather than anecdotes of living people and treasures of wit. This dearth of systematic collections of anecdote is strange in a century already disposed to love biographical minutiae, and about to produce, in James Boswell, the biographer who raised familiar biography to a plane of high art; but it is a fact. Hester therefore, under the triple incentive of Dr. Samuel Johnson belief in the value of saving the fragments of life, Henry Thrale's indulgent expectation, and her delight in the French 'anas', sat herself down to glean her wits, and to create what was almost, if not quite, the first English Ana.

Katherine C. Balderston described Thraliana as:

A collection of Hester Thrale's thoughts, experiences and verses from this period of her life. It was important because it was almost the first English Ana.

Influences

The books were not intended for diary-keeping in the strict sense, but for a 'repository'; Hester makes this clear in her opening sentence…

It is many Years since Doctor Samuel Johnson advised me to get a little Book, and write in it all the little Anecdotes which might come to my Knowledge, all the Observations I might make or hear, all the Verses never likely to be published, and in fine ev'ry thing which struck me at the Time.

On 6 September 1777, Dr. Samuel Johnson said:

I suppose you are pretty diligent at the Thraliana, and a very curious collection posterity will find it.

Hester's thoughts on her Thraliana

On 27 January 1791, Hester wrote in Thraliana (page 204 of volume v):

Thraliana is itself an odd Thing! here is the Year 1791 begun, and five Volumes of the six Mr Thrale gave me, not filled yet:-- very strange! considering what Trash I put in it too. but when the last comes as near to ending as this now does--my fingers will shake lest I should be near ending as well as my Book. my heart tells me that he said something when he presented me with the Volumes, as if--I don't know as if: but this I know, that fifteen Years have elapsed since I first made the Thraliana my Confidant, my solitary Comfort, and Depositary of every Thought as it arose. What will be done with my poor Thraliana when I am dead? I hope the Day is distant however, and as Old Kecksey says--Who's afraid?

In November 1818, Hester wrote in her commonplace book:

Revisal of ones past life!! Doctor Johnson who always profess'd an Aversion to Canting … did not surely cant himself when he advised me to keep a Register of Events, Conversations &, and said how pleasant it would be in Revisal! and I stupid Dunce! never had the Wit to reply 'Why Sir, you don't like reviewing your own Life; why should I at your Age like it better?' he always said looking back on past Days was dreadful to him: & then counseled me to make a 'Thraliana'. I have looked into mine since I brought it from Brynbella --read 12 Pages--and lost my sleep for a Week. Nothing should keep me from burning the whole to Night, but respect for my Executor's Profit or Amusement--but I have tied it up tight, will review my past Life no more.

Ownership and possession

After her death, the volumes which had been the subject of so much heart-searching became the property of:

• her adopted son and heir, Sir John Salusbury Piozzi Salusbury;
• his son, the Rev. George Augustus Salusbury, and
• his son, Major Edward Pemberton Salusbury (he offered Thraliana for sale at Sotheby's, in June 1908, along with a large collection of other manuscripts from the Piozzian archives, but bought them in again, presumably for lack of a satisfactory bid);
• his daughter Mrs. R. V. Colman, of Denbigh offered the volumes for sale in 1920. They were finally sold by private treaty in 1922 to Mr Henry E. Huntington, through his librarian, Mr George Watson Cole and remain in the Huntington Library in California.

Publication

In 1813 Hester wrote of Thraliana:

Let it Never be printed! oh never, never never.

An annotated version of Thraliana was published by the Clarendon Press in 1942 and 1952, edited by Katherine C Balderston.

This is in two volumes and totals over 1,300 pages:

• Volume 1: 1776 - 1784
• Volume 2: 1784 - 1809

Other publications called 'Thraliana'

Title	Published	Cover	Description
Thraliana	1951		The 1776-1818 diary of Hester Thrale née Salusbury
A New Thraliana	1973		Family history of the English Thrale family by Richard William Thrale, building on Thrale sections from the 1952 book Historic Sandridge
A Newer Thraliana	2005		The most comprehensive & updated family history of the Thrale family by Richard William Thrale