Inventing Scrooge: The Incredible True Story Behind Charles Dickens' Legendary A Christmas Carol
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The following sentiment was offered by Charles Dickens to his children. Mamie closed the Christmas chapter of her book with it, and it only seems appropriate to do so here now:
“Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Fill your glass again with a merry face and contented heart. Our life on it, but your Christmas shall be merry and your New Year a happy one.
“So may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on you! So may each year be happier than the last, and not the meanest of our brethren or sisterhood debarred their rightful share in what our great Creator formed them to enjoy.”
* * *
Acknowledgements
Any author of such an effort owes a great debt of gratitude to those who went before him. Several writers’ works have proved invaluable, including those of John Forster, Michael Slater, Peter Ackroyd, Stephen Leacock, Andre Maurois, Claire Tomalin, Edgar Johnson, and many more, and of course Dickens’ children Mamie Dickens and Charles Dickens Jr. as well as his granddaughter Mekitty.
I poured over more than five hundred original sources, including diaries, letters, and interviews with Dickens, his children, their household members, and biographies of friends and literary partners, searching for hints of Christmas here and there to weave into this story.
As ever, I owe a debt of special thanks in all of my professional endeavors to Gilbert King for his ear, opinions, advice, general good cheer, and encouragement. Others who also cheered me on were Michael Fragnito and Caitlin Friedman, among others.
I would, of course, like to thank John Whalen of Cider Mill Press Book Publishers, who helped make this book a reality. Were it not for his excitement, enthusiasm, and faith in me, I might have given up under the weight of this massive project. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Alyssa Richard, Alex Smith, and Greg Jones who helped mold a rather large manuscript into readable shape, and to Alicia Freile who managed the design. Thanks also to Whitney Cookman for a wonderful dust-jacket design.
I would like to thank my family, especially my sons, Dylan and Dawson, whom I have taken too much time away from in order to pursue not only this work, but also my other professional aspirations. I have tried to attend as many of their basketball, baseball, and track competitions as possible, but there is no replacement for a catch in the yard or an ice-cream cone, many of which were robbed by my other pursuits. I vow to them to spend more time hanging out and less time working.
About the Author
Carlo DeVito is the author of more than fifteen books including A Mark Twain Christmas and 10 Secrets My Dog Taught Me. He is a longtime publishing executive and has published titles by Stephen Hawking, Dan Rather, Malachy McCourt, Haynes Johnson, and many other prominent authors. His own work as author and editor has been reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, the Hartford Courant, and others, and he’s been featured on CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX television and WFAN, WCBS, WABC, and ESPN radio, as well as many other TV and radio stations nationwide. He published the highly acclaimed book Strange Fruit by Vanity Fair contributing editor David Margolick, and is the inventor of the Mini Kit, which has millions in print worldwide. He is co-owner of the Hudson-Chatham Winery, and lives in Ghent, New York, with his family.
End Notes
PROLOGUE
Brown, Joel, ‘Christmas Carol’ passes from one Dickens to another, The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) December 19, 2013
Temple Theater, http://www.tremonttemple.org/ourstory
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremont_Temple
THE TRAIN RIDE
“There is a hackney-coach . . . Dickens, Charles, Charles Dickens on London, Miniature Masterpieces, 2013
“Chuzzlewit had fallen short . . . Forster, John, The Life of Charles Dickens, Sterling Publishing (New York, NY) 2011
“It is not uncommon though . . . Smiley, Jane, Charles Dickens, Viking (New York, NY) 2002
Dickens probably scheduled . . . Railway Schedules of the London & Birmingham, 1843
“I think I must be the . . . Noden, Merrell, “Frisky as the Dickens,” Sports Illustrated, February 15, 1988
“Houses were knocked . . . Johnson, Edgar, Charles Dickens, His Tragedy and Triumph, Vol I & II, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY) 1952
“when I wanted variety . . . Nordquist, Richard, “Night Walks,” by Charles Dickens, http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/nightwalks_4.htm
“The Dickens lived in what . . . Callow, Simon, Dickens’ Christmas: A Victorian Celebration, Frances Lincoln (London, England) 2009
“His schoolboy’s few clothes . . . Kaplan, Fred, Dickens: A Biography, William Morrow & Co. (New York, NY) 1990
And this I know, Dickens, Charles, Speech in support of the Manchester Athenaeum, October 5, 1843
“This was a dream, also . . . Ackroyd, Peter, Dickens, Harper Collins (New York, NY) 1990
“I could not bear to think . . . Tomalin, Claire, Charles Dickens: A Life, The Penguin Press (New York, NY) 2011
“not caring to be under . . . Johnson
“We were indebted for . . . Ackroyd
“I shall enforce the . . . Standiford, Les, The Man Who Invented Christmas, Broadway Books (New York, NY) 2008
“How often have we . . . Dickens speech, 1843
“The soiree of the next . . . Ackroyd
“Something about ‘the bright . . . Johnson, Edgar, Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph, abridgement, Puffin (New York, NY) 1986
“Active as he had been . . . Forster
STAVE I
EBENEZER SCROOGE
“None of Dickens characters . . . Sanders, Andrew, Charles Dickens’s London, Robert Hale (London, England) 2010
“For Dickens, London was . . . Sanders
“I have been this . . . Forster
“This was his first . . . Forster
But the gloaming of an evening . . . “Revealed: the Scot who inspired Dickens’ Scrooge,” The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland) April 24, 2014
Ebenezer Scrooge . . . http://historum.com/blogs/chookie/580-ebeneezer-scrooge.html
John Meggott Elwes . . . Topham, Edward, The Life of the Late John Elwes, Esquire, Paraclete Potter (Poughkeepsie, NY) 1790
“complained bitterly of the birds . . . Miller, William Haig, The Culture of Pleasure, Robert Carter & Bros. (New York, NY) 1873
In 1772 with the help . . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Elwes_(politician)
“He was halfway through . . . Smiley
SCROOGE AND MARLEY
“It was within this maze . . . Jones, Richard, Walking Dickensian London, Interlink Books (London, England) 2005
“the ancient tower of a . . . Rattigan, David L., “Where was Scrooge’s Office?,” http://scroogebook.blogspot.com/2011/10/where-was-scrooges-office.html
Newman’s Court is off the . . . Hoole, Ivor, “A guide to the alleys, courts, passages, and yards of central London” http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/london-alleys/
Newman’s Court first became . . . McCullough, John Ramsay, A Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical of Commerce, Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans ( London, England) 1852
FRED
“Furnival’s Inn was inhabited . . . Johnson Vol. 1
“into an uncarpeted and . . . Johnson Vol. 1
“The Doughty Street home . . . Johnson Vol. 1
“mahogany doors, bookshelves . . . Tomalin
THE SOLICITORS
“The power of population . . . Malthus T. R., An Essay on the Principle of Population, Chapter VII, 1798
“I don’t believe now . . . Forster
“The great Malthusian dread . . . Ritschel, Dr. Dan, Center for History Education at the University of Maryland, http://www.umbc.edu/history/CHE/InstPg/RitDop/Discovery-of-poverty-Malthusianism.htm
BOB CRATCHIT
“I thought in the little back . . . Tyler, Daniel, A Guide to Dickens London, Hes
perus Press (London, England) 2012
“Bayham Street was about the . . . Forster
“The housing was uninspiring . . . Tyler
“To say . . . Johnson, Vol 1.
“To be sure the Cratchits . . . Nissenbaum, Stephen, The Battle for Christmas, Vintage Books (New York, NY) 1996
“Most people walked . . . Sanders
“These tended to be . . . Sanders
“Cities fostered new breeds . . . Amato, Anthony, On Foot: A History of Walking, New York University Press (New York, NY) 2004
“[The] core was the old . . . Poole, Daniel, What Jane Austen Ate and What Charles Dickens Knew, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY) 1993
“In Jane Austen’s day . . . Poole
JACOB MARLEY
“a private gentleman and . . . Ackroyd
“Dickens’s walks served him . . . Noden
“But Dickens’s walks played . . . Noden
“If I could not walk far . . . Noden
“Legend holds that it was . . . Jones
“It should not be imagined . . . Johnson, Vol. 1
There was a marked difference . . . MacKenzie, Norman and Jeanne, Dickens: A Life, Oxford University Press (New York, NY) 1979
“dragged by the hair of my head . . . Ackroyd
“All through the Christian ages . . . Orwell, George, Charles Dickens, Inside the Whale and Other Essays, Penguin (London, England) 1940
STAVE II
THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST
“His study had to be precisely . . . Currey, Mason, Daily Rituals, Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY) 2014
“On an ordinary day, he . . . Currey
“I have never forgotten . . . Hearn, Michael Patrick, The Annotated Christmas Carol, W.W. Norton (New York, NY) 2004
“The scheme of A . . . Hearn
“As with every other . . . Hearn
THE SCHOOL
“every encouragement in his power . . . Langton, Robert, The Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens, Cornell University Library (Ithaca, NY) 2012
Students at Mr. Giles’ school were . . . Langton
“The school room setting . . . Slater
“Those who seek reasons . . . Ackroyd
“in the days when there . . . Langton
OLD FEZZIWIG
“When we were only babies . . . Dickens, Mamie, My Father, As I Recall Him, Roxburghe Press (Westminster, England) 1896
“No one can imagine . . . Dickens, Mamie
“The relationship between the . . . Nissenbaum
BELLE
“Hogarth . . . had a large and still . . . Tomalin
“He (Dickens) saw in her . . . Tomalin
“I am writing by candle-light . . . Ackroyd
“All the whilehe was trying . . . MacKenzie
“You know . . . I have . . . Ackroyd
“Kate,” wrote Edgar Johnson, “finding that . . . Johnson
“the quantity is not sufficient . . . Johnson
“with what a strange mastery . . . Forster
STAVE III
CHRISTMAS PRESENT
“I am bent on paying the money . . . Forster
“Leech was a nervous . . . Hearn
“As a child Charles was exposed . . . Perdue, David, “Dickens’ Amateur Theatricals,” http://charlesdickenspage.com/stage.html
“Constantly underfed, Charles sniffed . . . Kaplan, Michael, Charles Dickens, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT) 2009
“ . . . I fell into a state of neglect . . . Ackroyd
“Workers with some income . . . Poole
“ . . . others observed that Dickens’ . . . Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert, Becoming Dickens, Belknap Harvard University Press (Boston, MA) 2009
“That image of everyone sitting . . . Kirka, Danica, “Dickens Christmas: A turkey as big as me? What’s at Tiny Tim’s table?” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, December 21, 2008
“Narrative snapshots like the . . . Douglas-Fairhurst
TINY TIM
“Harry was a singular child . . . Ackroyd
“The blackened skies would . . . Chesney, Russell W., M.D., “Environmental factors in Tiny Tim’s near-fatal illness,” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, March 2012
“The salary earned by Bob Cratchit . . . Chesney
“The dependent person with a disability . . . Block, Laurie with Alison, Jay, producers, “Inventng the Poster Child,” NPR.org, http://www.npr.org/programs/disability/ba_shows.dir/pos_chld.dir/highlights/ttim.html
THE MINERS
“From October 27, to 4 November 1842 . . . Slater
“his imagination continued to be . . . Slater
“Christmas was always a . . . Kaplan
“The close, low chamber at the back . . . Dickens, Charles, “Field Lane Ragged School,” Daily News (London) February 4, 1846
“ . . . [H]e saw before him always . . . Ackroyd
“Many of them retire for . . . Kaplan
STAVE IV
“In the play Everyman, death . . . Bolton, Daniel, “The Study of Death in ‘The Summoning of Everyman,’ ” http://voices.yahoo.com/the-study-death-summoning-everyman-10726313.html, December 22, 2011
THE EXCHANGE
“The Royal Exchange was opened . . . Dickens, Charles, Jr., Dickens’s Dictionary of London, 1879
THE PAWNBROKER
“ . . . nobody ever came to the school . . . Ackroyd
“ . . . [H]is distracted mother tried . . . Johnson, Vol. 1
“Charles, as the man of the family . . . Tomalin
THE DEATH OF TINY TIM
“It was feared, but regarded with . . . Manoli-Skocay, Constance, “A Gentle Death: Tuberculosis in 19th Century Concord,” The Concord Magazine, Winter, 2003
STAVE V
“Marley’s Ghost is the symbol . . . Johnson
“In A Christmas Carol Dickens imagines . . . Ackroyd
“In fact, as everyone surely knew . . . Baker, Russell, “Did Scrooge Buy a Goose or Turkey?” The Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon) January 20, 1986
“So, the turkey that Scrooge purchased . . . Rubel, William, http://www.williamrubel.com/2006/07/07/charles-dickens-and-turkeys/, July 7, 2006
THE SOLICITOR REDUX
“The truth is that Dickens’s criticism . . . Orwell
BOB CRATCHIT’S RAISE
“I assume if somebody else . . . Gollom, Mark, “Scrooge an economic hero, defenders say,” CBC News, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/scrooge-an-economic-hero-defenders-say-1.1161205, December 21, 2012
“many thousands whose jobs . . . Gollom
TINY TIM
“How could Scrooge, who . . . Chesney
EPILOGUE
“This was a primitive process . . . Hearn
“I do not doubt, in my own . . . Hearn
“At Christmas 1843 Dickens, for all . . . Tomalin
“Dickens and Forster above all exerted . . . Carlyle, Jane, http://carlyleletters.dukejournals.org/
“Forster is out again; and if he don’t . . . Ackroyd
“Good God, how we missed you . . . Johnson
“Never had a little book an outset . . . Forster
“The book went straight to . . . Tomalin
“A few days later, in a separate . . . Wagenknecht, Edward, Dickens and the Scandalmongers, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK) 1965
“He was one of the oddest men to . . . Callow
“Christmas cards were not introduced . . . Ackroyd
“Dickens, with his A Christmas Carol, more than . . . Connelly, Mark, Christmas, A History, I.B. Tauris & Co. (London, England) 2012
DISAPPOINTMENT . . .
Dickens soon found himself in a . . . Ackroyd
“The first six thousand copies . . . Forster
“And indeed this was his panic . . . Ackroyd
THE FIRST READING
“the coxcombical idea of writing down . . . Johnson
“On the way to the railway station . . . Ackroyd
“ . . . we were all
going on together . . . Ackroyd
“Dickens’s delighted enjoyment, in fact . . . Kent, Charles, Charles Dickens as a Reader, Chapman & Hall, 1872
“The secret of his original success . . . Kent
“how Mr. Dickens twirled his moustache . . . Ackroyd,
“My good friends. . . .” But he had to stop . . . Ackroyd
“I now proceed to the pleasant task . . . Ackroyd
“If Dickens does turn Reader . . . Ackroyd
THE LAST CHRISTMAS
“The Carol also shows a notable . . . Slater
“Dickens was lying ill on a sofa, playing . . . Maurois, Andre, Dickens, Frederick Ungar Publishing (New York, NY) 1967
“My father, after man turns had successfully . . . Ackroyd
“As Dickens grew up . . . MacKenzie
“The site of his childhood labor . . . Ackroyd
“It was not until his biography appeared . . . Maurois
“All that his readers knew or . . . Slater
“Thrown among the poor and needy . . . Slater
“Certain biographers have shown surprise . . . Maurois
THE LAST READING
“No one can imagine their own . . . Tomalin
“It was more than a reading; it was an extraordinary . . . Johnson
“what creatures were those . . . Kent
“He tightened the narrative . . . Perdue, David, “Dickens’ Public Readings,” http://charlesdickenspage.com/stage.html
“Dickens’ six-man entourage . . . Perdue, Public Readings
“How the audience loved best of all . . . Perdue, Public Readings
“It was an occasion of high emotion . . . Tomalin
“Never did [a] man wishing to deceive . . . McManus, I.C., “Charles Dickens: A Neglected Diagonosis,” The Lancet, Volume 358, Issue 9299, pp. 2158 - 2161, December 22, 2001
“I have had some step put up the side . . . Johnson
“The time had now come for him . . . Ackroyd, p. 1066
“The largest audience ever assembled . . . Kent, Reader
“spare figure . . . faultlessly attired in evening dress . . . Ackroyd
“a big man, full of energy, optimism and know-how . . . Tomalin
“The manly, cordial voice only faltered . . . Kent, Readings
“When he ceased to speak,” wrote Henry Fielding Dickens . . . Leacock, Stephen, Charles Dickens: The Life and Work, Doubleday Doran (Garden City, NY) 1936