Mill, John Stuart 1806-1873
Archival location guide — where this economist’s surviving papers are held, their notable correspondents, and key published sources.
Born 1806 · died 1873
John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy. Dubbed "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century" by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, he conceived of liberty as justifying the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state and social control. He advocated political and social reforms such as proportional representation, the emancipation of women, and the development of labour organisations and farm cooperatives.
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Correspondence, 1822-1873, including Mill's own letters to Fawcett and Cairnes, with many notebooks, accounts and other papers. Mill-Taylor collection, British Library of Political and Economic Science (BLPES)
Correspondence, 1812-1873, including 237 of his own letters, many of which are to Harriet Taylor, and nearly 200 in-letters, several of which are from economists. Also a journal of a walking tour in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Surrey, and some other miscellaneous manuscript items. J. S. Mill collection, Yale UL
Six bound volumes of correspondence, five being in-letters from correspondents including Jeremy Bentham, and one being letters from Mill to various correspondents. Johns Hopkins UL, Baltimore.
A group of letters, mostly in his hand, appearing to be drafts of letters to various correspondents, 1840-1863. Brotherton collection, Leeds UL
A collection of his letters to various correspondents, 1829-1859. King’s College, Cambridge.
A manuscript of Mill's Autobiography, 230 pages long, and nine letters to various correspondents, 1834-1867. Hollander collection, University of Illinois Library, Urbana.
A manuscript of Principles of Political Economy. Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.
Other locations for Mill manuscripts (including a press-copy holograph manuscript of the Logic, BL; a press-copy manuscript of the Autobiography, Manchester JRUL ; a holograph manuscript of the Autobiography, Columbia UL, New York) are numerous and details can be obtained from Collected Works and the Mill Newsletter.
Printed Material
The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill ed. John M. Robson, 33 volumes (Toronto, 1965-91). For the out-letters of Mill see volumes XII and XIII, the Earlier Letters of John Stuart Mill, 1812-1848 , ed. Francis E. Mineka; and volumes XIV to XVII for the Later Letters of John Stuart Mill, 1849-1873, ed. Francis L. Mineka and Dwight N. Lindley,
New Palgrave ; ODNB; Boase II 87 5 ; ESS X 481; IESS X 340.
Portraits: BL (P); NPG; City Hall, Westminster.