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Myers Literary Guide:
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The North-East
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WILLIAM THACKERAY (1811 - 1863) Thackeray became friendly with John Bowes, the builder of the Bowes Museum, when the illegitimate son of the Earl of Strathmore spent ten weeks in Paris in 1832, seeing Thackeray at least once a week. In November of that year, Thackeray's diary records that he 'wrote some verses for Bowes' Opera'. In 1836, Bowes financed the publication of Thackeray's set of drawings and captions burlesquing Flore et Zephyr, a ballet by Didelot. They were published under the name of Theophile Wagstaffe. It was the first money Thackeray had ever earned - fourteen pounds - and he always remembered it. Thackeray later stayed with his benefactor at Streatlam castle near Barnard Castle, between 26 June and 13 July 1841, assisting in the extremely lively and successful campaign to elect Bowes to parliament for South Durham. Bowes represented South Durham from 1832 until 1847, the elections of 1835 and 1837 being unopposed. The campaigning gave rise to Thackeray's 'Notes on the North What-d'ye-Callem Election' which appeared in Fraser's Magazine in September and October 1841. His host had regaled him with the astonishing tragi-comic story of Mary Bowes (q.v.) and Thackeray based his first real novel, the entertaining Barry Lyndon partly upon these scandalous events. Thackeray was clearly informed about the Durham personalities of his time, and Edward Elder, the Head of Durham School 1839-53, appears in The Newcomes as Dr Senior.
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