Alexander Carlyle was engaged on his autobiography at various times during the last five, years of his life but at his death the narrative had reached only 1770. When it was published, in 1860, a supplemental chapter was added by the editor, John Hill Burton, to cover the remainder of Carlyle's life.

It is written on the rectos only, with additions, some, quite, lengthy, on the facing versos. A number of passages were deleted by Carlyle: these, were, not printed but the remainder of the text was published almost entirely as written.

MS.23911 was written in a quarto notebook which had been first begun in 1787 and continued until 1794 to record details of the stipend of the minister of Inveresk, re-used at the back in 1788 to record notes of garden plantings (until 1794), and in 1800 turned over and used as the first volume of the ‘Autobiography’. The other volumes consist of folio sheets used solely for the purpose and stitched together. In each volume the narrative is written on the rectos only, additions (some very extensive) and amendments being written on the versos.