William Duthie (author) explained

William Duthie
Occupation:	Goldsmith, writer
Language:	English
Notable Works:	A Tramp's Wallet
Years Active:	1852–1870

William Duthie was a mid-19th century English goldsmith and author of prose and poetry.^{[1] [2]}

Life

Born in London to working-class parents, William Duthie became a goldsmith. He left London to live in Hamburg for several years, and travelled in Germany and France.

After his return to London, he contributed to periodicals, such as Charles Dickens's magazine Household Words (1852–1855),^[3] Welcome Guest, The Cornhill Magazine, and Belgravia (1866–1870),^[4] recounting his adventures abroad. These articles led to the publication of A Tramp's Wallet (1858) and Proved in the Fire (1867).

Duthie also published novels and poetry.

During the mid-1850's Duthie was involved in the National Sunday League, an organisation which opposed Sabbatarianism.^[5]

Works

• A Tramp's Wallet: stored by an English goldsmith during his Wanderings in Germany and France, London: Darton, 1858; London: Harwicke, 1865. (Dedicated to Dickens)
• The Pearl of the Rhone, and other Poems, London: Hardwicke, 1864.
• Proved in the Fire. A story of the burning of Hamburg (3 vols.), London: Wood, 1867. (Dedicated to Henry James Slack)
• Counting the Cost. A novel (3 vols.), London: Wood, 1867.

Musical settings

Some of Duthie's poems were set to music:

• Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, Six Four-part Songs, 1868. (All 6 texts by Duthie)
• Ciro Pinsuti, Choral Songs, [1869]. (4 of the 6 texts are by Duthie)

Notes and References

1. Lohrli, Anne (1971). "William Duthie". University of Toronto Press. Dickens Journal Online. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
2. See also the foreword to the partial French translation of A Tramp's Wallet: William Duthie, La bourse de l’ouvrier voyageur. Pérégrinations d’un orfèvre anglais en Allemagne et en France, in "Les sentiers de l’ouvrier : Le Paris des artisans britanniques (autobiographies, 1815-1850)", Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
3. Dates according to: Anne Lohrli (compiler), Household Words: A Weekly Journal 1850-1859 Conducted by Charles Dickens. Table of contents, list of contributors and their contributions, University of Toronto Press, 1973;
   Cited in Sabine Clemm, Dickens, Journalism, and Nationhood: Mapping the World in Household Words, Routeledge, 2009.
4. See Appendix in Alberto Gabriele, Reading Popular Culture in Victorian Print: Belgravia and Sensationalism, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
5. For example, he was first signatory of the petition The National Sunday League: To Obtain the Opening of the British Museum and other national institutions on Sunday afternoons, London, 1856.
   See also Robert Cox, The Literature of the Sabbath Question, Volume 2, Edinburgh, 1865.