Call Number:

RBD.DICKENS

Repository:

Free Library of Philadelphia: Rare Book Department

Extent:

6.8 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box and folder number], Charles Dickens collection, 1832-1993 (bulk, 1832-1870), Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department.

Date:

1832-1870 (bulk) and 1832-1993 (inclusive)

Form:

Correspondence, Drawings (visual works), Ephemera, Illustrations, Manuscripts, and Portraits

Abstract:

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of the most popular English novelists of the Victorian era as well as a vigorous social campaigner. This is a collection of correspondence, manuscript material, and other items related to him. The material dates from 1832-1993, with the bulk of the material dating from 1832-1870. The bulk of the correspondence consists of autograph letters by Dickens. There are also autograph letters from Dickens’s circle of family, friends, and associates.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of the most popular English novelists of the Victorian era as well as a vigorous social campaigner. He was one of eight children, born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England to John and Catherine Dickens. Dickens’s career as a writer officially began in 1832, when he joined the staff of the Mirror of Parliament, recording the proceedings of the House of Commons. Around the same time, he was made parliamentary reporter for the newspaper The True Sun, through which he was exposed to London’s political scene. In 1845, he founded and served as editor of a radical newspaper, The Daily News, and shortly thereafter he became half owner and editor of the magazine Household Words. Household Words offered social commentary on issues like public health, education and prison reform.

Beginning in 1836 with The Pickwick Papers, Dickens wrote no less than fifteen novels and countless short stories. His work was often autobiographical and, like his work as a reporter and social commentator, frequently brought attention to the current political and social conditions of the day through criticism and satire. His fiction was often serialized in popular magazines prior to publication as novels. His works of fiction were extremely popular, gaining him fame and fortune throughout Europe and the United States. Some of his more famous works included The Pickwick Papers (1836-1837); Oliver Twist (1837-1839); Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839); A Christmas Carol (1843); David Copperfield (1849-1850); and Hard Times (1854).

Throughout his career, Dickens travelled to work or vacation in Italy, France, Switzerland and the United States. During his trip to America in 1841, Dickens and his wife, Catherine, travelled to major cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, Niagara Falls, and many other places in between. At each stop, the Dickens were greeted with much acclaim and celebration. This American tour inspired his book, American Notes. In 1867, Dickens embarked on a series of public dramatic readings of his work, which took him throughout England, Scotland, Ireland, and back to the United States. The readings proved immensely popular and profitable, though exhausting.

Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in 1836. They had ten children together. Dickens separated from Catherine in 1858, presumably to pursue a romantic relationship with a young actress named Ellen Ternan. Charles Dickens died at his home, Gad's Hill, on June 9, 1870. He was in the process of writing his last work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Bibliography:

Page, Norman. A Dickens Chronology. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1988.

Priestley, J.B. Charles Dickens and His World. New York: The Viking Press, 1969.

This is a collection of correspondence, manuscript material, and other items related to Charles Dickens. The material dates from 1832-1993, with the bulk of the material dating from 1832-1870. The bulk of the correspondence consists of autograph letters by Dickens. Significant correspondents include William Harrison Ainsworth, George Cattermole, George Cruikshank, John Leech, Mark Lemon, Daniel Maclise, Clarkson Stanfield, Frank Stone, and Thomas Adolphus Trollope. There are also autograph letters from some of these correspondents and from other members of Dickens’s circle of family, friends, and associates. Manuscripts in the collection include: The Life of Our Lord; five leaves of Pickwick Papers; a corrected copy of The Cricket on the Hearth; and fragments of several other stories, plays, and poems. Ephemera and memorabilia include: various printed notices, prospectuses, letters to the editor, and printed commentaries; invitations; announcements of readings; cartes de visites; advertisements; a silk commemorative bookmark; and photographs, cabinet card photographs, and engravings of Dickens, his family, and members of his circle. The collection also contains 20th century ephemera including: postcards; stamps, including a first day of issue; newspaper articles; brochures; a set of playing cards; and a set of cocktail napkins. Additionally the collection includes playbills (several of which are framed) from a variety of London and Philadelphia theaters for plays based on Dickens’s writings ( Oliver Twist, Martin Chuzzlewit, Domby and Son, Cricket on the Hearth, A Christmas Carol); and playbills for performances in which Dickens appeared.

The letters from Charles Dickens himself have been published in the Collected Letters. The correspondence from Dickens’s circle is less readily available to scholars and is extremely useful for scholarship.