by Fred Kaplan
FS Frank Stone
GC George Cruikshank
GD George Dolby
GH Georgina Hogarth
GHL George Henry Lewes
HA Henry Austin
HB Henry Burnett
HC Harriet Collins
HCA Hans Christian Andersen
HFD Henry Fielding Dickens
HMB Hannah Meredith Brown
HWL Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
JD John Dickens
JET James Emerson Tennent
JF John Forster
JL John Leech
JM John Macrone
JTF James T. Fields
KD Kate (Katie) Dickens
LA Letitia (Dickens) Austin
LB Lady Blessington
LH Leigh Hunt
LW Lavinia Watson
MB Mary Boyle
MD Mary (Mamie) Dickens
ML Mark Lemon
MS Marcus Stone
MW Maria (Beadnell) Winter
PC Philip Collins
PF Percy Fitzgerald
RB Richard Bentley
RBL Robert Bulwer-Lytton
RHH Richard Henry Home
TAT Thomas A. Trollope
TB Thomas Beard
TC Thomas Carlyle
TJT Thomas James Thompson
TM Thomas Mitton
TNT Thomas Noon Talfourd
WC Wilkie Collins.
WCM William Charles Macready
WFC William F. de Cerjat
WHA William Harrison Ainsworth
WHH William Holman Hunt
WHR W. H. Russell
WHW William Henry Wills
WJC William J. Carlton
WMT William Makepeace Thackeray
WSL Walter Savage Landor
BOOKS
Dickens’ Works
The Clarendon Dickens (Oxford, 1966–1982) has been used for DC, DS, ED, LD, MC, and OT. For all other works, including the Christmas tales and stories, The Oxford Illustrated Dickens has been used with occasional textual corrections from the Penguin edition, with the exception of BkM, which has been cited from the text (1981) published by the New York Public Library, and PI, which has been cited from the edition (1973) edited by David Paroissien. Miscellaneous Papers (1914), ed. B. W. Matz, contains many otherwise uncollected short pieces.
AN American Notes, 1842
BH Bleak House, 1852–53
BkM Charles Dickens’ Book of Memoranda, 1981
BR Barnaby Rudge, 1841
DC David Copperfield, 1849–50
DS Dombey and Son, 1846–78
ED The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 1870
GE Great Expectations, 1860–61
HT Hard Times, 1854
LD Little Dorrit, 1855–57
MC Martin Chuzzlewit, 1843–44
MP Miscellaneous Papers, 1914
NN Nicholas Nickleby, 1838–39
OCS The Old Curiosity Shop, 1840–41
OMF Our Mutual Friend, 1864–65
OT Oliver Twist, 1837–38
PI Pictures from Italy, 1846
PP Pickwick Papers, 1836–37
RP Reprinted Pieces, 1850–56
SB Sketches by Boz, 1833–36
TTC A Tale of Two Cities, 1859
UT The Uncommercial Traveller, 1860, 1865, 1875
HCD The Heart of Charles Dickens, ed. Edgar Johnson, 1952
KJF The Speeches of Charles Dickens, ed. K. J. Fielding, 1960
MM Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dickens. His Letters to Her, ed. Walter Dexter, 1935
N The Nonesuch Edition of The Letters of Charles Dickens, ed. Walter Dexter, 3 vols., 1938
P The Pilgrim Edition of The Letters of Charles Dickens, volumes 1–5, ed. Madeline House, Graham Storey, Kathleen Tillotson, K. J. Fielding, 1965–81.
Wills Charles Dickens as Editor, ed. R. C. Lehmann, 1912
Journals
AYR All the Year Round, 1859–70
D The Dickensian, 1905–
DSA Dickens Studies Annual, 1970–1987.
GHG Gad’s Hill Gazette, 1863–65. Berg; DHM.
HW Household Words, 1850–59
Reminiscences, Articles, and Books
Adrian Arthur Adrian, Georgina Hogarth and the Dickens Circle, 1957
Allen Michael Allen, “The Dickens Family at Portsmouth, 1807–14,” D (1981), 131–43; “The Dickens Family at London and Sheerness, 1815–1816,” D (1982), 3–7; “The Dickens Family at Chatham, 1817–1822,” D (1982), 67–88; “The Dickens Family in London, 1822–1824,” D (1982), 131–51; “The Dickens Family in London 1824–1827,” D (1983), 2–20
Bred Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Dickens, A Friendship and Its Dissolution, Anglistica 7, 1956
Christian Eleanor E. Christian, “Recollections of Charles Dickens,” Temple Bar, 1888
CD Jr Charles Dickens, Jr., “Reminiscences of My Father,” Windsor Magazine, 1934
Davies James A. Davies, John Forster, A Literary Life, 1983
DD Gladys Storey, Dickens and Daughter, 1939
Dolby George Dolby, Charles Dickens as I Knew Him, 1912
F John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens, 2 vols., 1876
Fitz Percy Fitzgerald, Memories of Charles Dickens, 1913
Frith W. P. Frith, My Autobiography and Reminiscences, 1889
Gaskell A. V. Chappie and Arthur Pollard, ed., Letters of Mrs. Gaskell, 1966
HFD.M Henry Fielding Dickens, Memories of My Father, 1929
HFD.R Henry Fielding Dickens, The Recollections of Sir Henry Dickens, 1934
IR Philip Collins. ed., Charles Dickens, Interviews and Recollections, 2 vols., 1981
J Edgar Johnson, Charles Dickens, His Tragedy and His Triumph, 2 vols., 1952
JTF James T. Fields, Yesterdays with Authors, 1882
Langton Robert Langton, The Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens, 1891
Lehmann John Lehmann, Ancestors and Friends, 1962
MD Mamie Dickens, My Father as I Recall Him, 1900
MS Marcus Stone, “Reminiscences,” DHM
Nisbet Ada Nisbet, Dickens & Ellen Ternan, 1952
P&P Frederic G. Kitton, Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil, 1889–90
Patten Robert Patten, Charles Dickens and His Publishers, 1978
Ray Gordon N. Ray, The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, 4 vols., 1945–46
Slater Michael Slater, Dickens and Women, 1983
WCM.D William Charles Macready, The Diaries of William Charles Macready, ed. William Toynbee, 2 vols., 1912
WCM.R William Charles Macready, Macready’s Reminiscences and Diaries, ed. Frederick Pollock, 1875
Wright Thomas Wright, The Life of Charles Dickens, 1935
Yates Edmund Yates, Recollections and Experiences, 1884
CHAPTER ONE
Scenes of His Boyhood (1812–1822)
1. CD to WHW, 9/4/1860, N 3, 176–77; CD to WCM, 3/1/1865, N 3, 416; DD, 106–7. Though Storey states that it was Katie who tried to save some of the letters, it is likely to have been Mamie or Georgina; Katie was in France.
2. CD to WCM, 2/1/1865, N 3, 416.
3. Christian, 483–84; Allen (“Portsmouth”), 137; CD to ABC, 8/30/1849, P 5, 602.
4. F, I, 1, 5; CD to ABC, 1/25/1855, HCD, 289; MS. DHM.
5. “The First of May” (“A Little Talk about Spring and the Sweeps”), SB (June 1836), 170.
6. J 2, 1160–61 provides genealogies for the Dickens and Barrow families that go back to 1633 and 1510 respectively. I do not believe that they are historically valid; DD, 31–33.
7. Allen (“Portsmouth”), 131–32, 137; WJC, “The Barrows of Bristol,” D (1949), 33–36; DD, 37.
8. Allen (“Portsmouth”), 138–39, 142.
9. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 126; “The First of May,” SB (June 1836), 169; “Travelling Abroad,” UT, 62.
10. Allen (“Chatham”), 67–68.
11. “Travelling Abroad,” UT, 67; “Chatham Dockyard,” UT (AYR, 1860?), 260–62; “Dullborough Town,” UT, 116–17; the question of the
precise nature of his childhood and lifelong ailment has not been satisfactorily resolved. The most plausible guesses are made by W. H. Bowen in CD and His Family, 1956, 134–59.
12. KJF, 50–51; Langton, 25; F, I, 7, 10.
13. F, I, 1, 9–11.
14. MS; Arthur Heran, “Those Wonderful Eyes,” D (1926), 25–29; F I, 1, 10–11.
15. Memoirs of Grimaldi, ed. CD, 1838, ed. Richard Findlater, 1968, 9–10; F 2, 93.
16. Jane W. Stedman, “Good Spirits: Dickens’s Childhood Reading.” D (1965), 150–54; F, I, i, 10; “Dullborough Town,” UT, 120.
17. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 118.
18. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 118–19.
19. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 119.
20. “Night Walks,” UT, 131; “Nurse’s Stories,” UT, 156–57.
21. DD, 33–34; WJC, “More About the Dickens Ancestry,” D (1961), 5–10; Allen (“Chatham”), 80, 76–77.
CHAPTER TWO
The Hero of My Own Life (1822–1834)
1. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 116.
2. See WJC, “The Deed in DC,” D (1952), 101–6; William Oldie, “Mr. Micawber and the Redefinition of Experience,” D (1967), 100–110: “JD is the source for Mr. Micawber. … Perhaps this, more than anything, shows how profoundly Dickens needed to write about his father” (109). E. Davey, “The Parents of CD,” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine (1874), 772–74, takes the untenable position that JD and Micawber and Elizabeth Dickens and Mrs. Nickleby have little in common and are not portraits of CD’s parents.
3. Davey, 773; Ephesian (C. E. Bechhofer Roberts), “The Huffams, the Barrows, and the Admiralty,” D (1928), 263–66; W. B. Matz, “Christopher Huffam, CD’s Grandfather,” D (1924), 121–24; Allen (“London,” 1), 114.
4. F, I, 1, 18–19; WJC, “The Barber of Dean Street,” D (1951), 8–12.
5. WJC, “Fanny Dickens, Pianist and Vocalist,” D (1957), 133–43, and supplementary documents, DHM.
6. DD, 46–48; WJC, “JD, Journalist,” D (1957), 5–11.
7. Allen (“London,” 1), 135.
8. WJC, “In the Blacking Warehouse,” D (1964), 11–16; for a discussion of the problem of dating the start of CD’s employment at Warren’s, see Allen (“London,” 1), 138.
9. Kathleen H. Strange, “Blacking Polish,” D (1979), 7–11; F, I, 1, 25–26.
10. WJC, “The Deed in DC,” D (1952), 101–6.
11. Angus Easson, “I, Elizabeth Dickens: Light on JD’s Legacy,” D (1971), 35–40; Allen (“London,” 1), 140–50; JD to H. Perryman, 10/6/1825, D (1913), 148.
12. Easson, 40; copies of these Public Record Office documents are at the DHM. The originals are quoted in Allen (“London,” 1), 146–47, and Allen (“London,” 2), 4.
13. WJC, “Postscripts to Forster,” D (1962), 88–89; F, I, 28; Allen, 145–46.
14. F, I, 1, 22–3, 36–37.
15. F, I, 1, 38.
16. See Albert D. Hutter, “Reconstructive Autobiography: The Experience at Warren’s Blacking,” DSA 6 (1977), 1–14; F, I, 38.
17. P&P, 128.
18. See “Our School,” UT, 567, 573; Willoughby Matchett, “Dickens at Wellington House Academy,” D (1911), 212–13, 180–81; C. M. Neale, “Did Dickens Learn Virgil?” D (1912), 89–91, 123–26; CD to O. P. Thomas, 1825–26. P 1, 1.
19. Langton, 89; “Our School,” UT, 568; Walter Dexter, “One Hundred Years Ago, Dickens’s School Days in London,” D (1926), 45.
20. WJC, “The Deed,” 104–6; the editor, “Two Early Homes of CD,” D (1951), 198–200.
21. P&P, 129.
22. P&P, 130–31.
23. WJC, “The Strange Story of TM,” D (1960), 141–52; P 1, 35 note.
24. CD to J. H. Kuenzel, 7/?/1838, P 1, 423; P 1, 9 note 4.
25. Gerald G. Grubb, “Dickens’ First Experience as a Parliamentary Reporter,” D (1940), 216; Samuel Carter Hall, Retrospect of a Long Life, 1883, 64; WJC, “JD, Journalist,” D (1957), 5–6.
26. WJC, CD Shorthand Writer (1926), 46–7; CD to Kuenzel, 7/?/1838, P1, 423; Grubb, 211–18.
27. F, I, 3. 55.
28. P 1, 2.
29. A. De Suzannet, “Maria Beadnell’s Album,” D (1935), 161–68.
30. “City of London Churches,” UT, 88–89; Michael Slater, “David to Dora: A New Dickens Letter,” D (1972), 162–66, and Slater, 54–57; “The Bill of Fare,” HH MS.; despite his disappointment, he continued to feel affection for George Beadnell, who “was most hospital, friendly, & kind,” and corresponded with him through the 1840s.
31. WJC, “A Companion of the Copperfield Days,” D (1953), 7–16.
32. CD to MW, 2/22/1855, N 2, 633; “Birthday Celebrations,” UT, 403.
33. CD to Maria Beadnell, 5/14/1833, 5/19/1833, P 1, 23, 29; CD to Henry Kolle, 5/19/1833, P 1, 29.
34. CD to JF, 12/30–31/1844, 1/1/1845, P 4, 244–45.
35. WJC, “Fanny Dickens,” 135–36; P 4, 245.
36. CD provided a fictional account of an aspect of the preparation in “Mrs. Joseph Porter” (Monthly Magazine, 1/1834); Morgan MS.
37. Morgan MS.; Charles Haywood, “CD and Shakespeare; or, The Irish Moor of Venice, O’Thello, With Music.” D (1977), 67–87.
38. CD to Kolie, 12/10/1833, P1, 33–34; WJC, “An Echo of the Copperfield Days,” D (1949), 149–52; Charles Mackay, Forty Years’ Recollections of Life Literature, and Public Affairs, 1877, I, 78; P&P, 133–34.
39. JD to TB, 12/4/1834, DHM.
CHAPTER THREE
The First Coming (1834–1837)
1. J. P. Collier, An Old Man’s Diary, 1872, IV, viii.
2. Collier, IV, 12–14.
3. P 1, 47, 60; KJF, 347.
4. P 1, 41 note 1; CD to CaD, 12/16/1835, P 1, 106–7; P 1, 106, note 3.
5. KJF, 346–47; “Preface,” SB (1850); “Preface,” PP (1867).
6. KJF, 347; Charles Mackay, P&P, 134.
7. CD to George Hogarth, 1/20/1835, P 1, 54–55.
8. PP, 138.
9. DD, 49–50; W. Forbes Gray, “The Edinburgh Relatives and Friends of CD,” D (1926), 218–23; Christian, 481.
10. WJC, “An Early Home of Dickens in Kensington,” D (1965), 20–25; CD to CaD, 7/1835. 7/9/1835. P 1. 67, 69.
11. CD to CaD, 5/1835, P 1, 61.
12. CD to CaD, 6/?/1835, P 1, 63.
13. CD to CaD, 6/1835, P 1, 63; Michael Slater, “How Dickens ‘told’ Catherine about his Past,” D (1979), 3–6.
14. CD to CaD, 11/19/1835, P 1, 95.
15. CD to CaD, 12/18/1835, 12/?/1835, P 1, no, 104.
16. CD to CaD, 11/3O?/1835, P 1, 99; P 1, 131 note, 144 note; PP, supplement, 10; TB to F. G. Kitton, 1/12/1888, DHM.
17. See G. A. Sala, The Life and Adventures of G. A. Sala, 1895, I, 172–73, for the origin of this story and John Sutherland, “JM,” DSA 13, 244 and 258 note; CD to JM, 10/27/1835, P 1, 81–84.
18. Samuel Ellis, William Henry Harrison and His Friends, 1911, I, 99, 121, 225.
19. Sala, Gentleman’s Magazine (1878). Quoted in Michael Wynn Jones, George Cruiksbank, His Life and London, 1978, 43; Blanchard Jerrold, The Life of George Cruiksbank, 1898, 109, 47–73; John Wardropper, The Caricatures of George Cruiksbank, 1978, 8; Kitton, CD and His Illustrators, 1899, 4; they had probably met in the summer of 1835. See WHA to Dear Sir, 8/30?/1835, HH.
20. Jerrold, 109; CD to JM, 12/26/1835, 12/171835, P 1, 112, 108; JTF, 230–31.
21. See Sutherland, 250, and Patten, 31–32, 40–41.
22. CD to RB, 9/17/1836, P 1, 174; P 1, 210 note; T. W. Hill, “Dickens and His ‘Ugly Duckling,’” D (1950), 190–96.
23. Patten, 60–62; Arthur Waugh, A Hundred Years of Publishing: Being the Story of C&H, 1930, 16–17; “Preface,” PP (1847).
24. Patten, 46–60; C&H to CD, 2/12/1836, P 1, 648; CD to CaD, 2/10/1836, P 1, 128–29.
25. Waugh, 20–21, 23; CD to Robert Seymour, 4/14/1836, P 1, 145–46; “Preface,” PP (1868), xxiii; for an argument on behalf of Seymour’s contributions to PP, see Diane
Keitt, “CD and Robert Seymour: The Battle of Wills,” D (1986), 2–11.
26. Patten, 65; CD to C&H, 4/27/1836, P 1, 147–48.
27. See Jane R. Cohen, CD and His Original Illustrators, 1980, 53–58.
28. Speech at the Royal Academy dinner, Ray I, 312; KJF, 265.
29. Ray, I, 312; CD to JL, 8/24/1836, P 1, 168; CD to C&H, 8/24/1836, P 1, 169–70; F, I, 1, 71–72.
30. Patten, 66–67.
31. CD to C&H, 11/1/1836, P 1, 189.
32. JD to C&H, 2/14/1837, DHM transcription from Fitzgerald Collection, Rochester.
CHAPTER FOUR
Charley Is My Darling (1837–1841)
1. CD to JF, 6/20?/1837. P 1, 274.
2. WMT to Edward Fitzgerald, 5/1835, Ray, I, 287; Juston O’Driscoll, Memoir of Daniel Maclise, 1871, 20–22; Christian, 496.
3. Davies, 159–83; CD to JF, 1/8/1845, P 4, 246–47; JF to Mrs. JF, 7/8?/1869, HH; JF, “Diary,” 8/1853, 7/15/1849, 2/24/1851, 8/29/1859, 10/12/1860, HH; Henry Rawlins to Whitwell Elwin, 12/20/1879, HH.
4. JF to Mrs. Bennett, 6/20/1827, HH; Miss Bennett to Thomas Chitty, 9/12/1877, HH; extract from playbill, HH; William Andrew Mitchell, Newcastle Mercury (5/17/1828); P 3, 273 note 1.
5. Davies, 10–13; CD to Dr. Belcombe, 2/8/1838, Morgan; JF, “Diary,” 8/18/1859, HH.
6. P 1, 205 note 3, 210 note 1.
7. Samuel C. Hall, Memories of Great Men and Women of the Age 1877, 64.
8. WCM.D, 36, 72, 399.
9. P 1, 65 note; WJC, “The Death of Mary Hogarth–Before and After,” D (1967), 69; Mary Scott Hogarth to Mary Scott Hogarth II, 5/15/1836, P 1, 689; Mary Scott Hogarth to Mary Scott Hogarth II, 1/26/1837, “New letters of Mary Hogarth and Her Sister Catherine,” D (1967), 77.
10. Catherine Hogarth to Mary Scott Hogarth II, 5/30/1857, WJC, “New Letters,” D (1967), 71–72, 80; CD to ABC, 5/9/1858, HCD, 354–55.
11. CD to George Thomson, 5/8/1837, P 1, 256; WJC, “New Letters,” 80; CD to unknown correspondent, 6/8/1837, P 1, 268; CD to TB, 5/17/1837, P 1, 259.
12. Charles Klingman, “The Dream of CD,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association (1970), 783–89; P 1, 629; CD to Richard Johns, 5/31/1837, P 1, 263.
13. P 1, 632; CD to Johns, 5/31/1837, P 1, 263; CD to William Bradbury, 3/3/1839, P 1, 515; CD to CaD, 2/1/1838, P 1, 366.
14. CD to Henry Kolle, 12/10?/1833, P 1, 34; Kathleen Tillotson, ed., OT, 1966, xv-xvi.
15. From the inscription by CD on Mary Hogarth’s tombstone, P 1, 259 note 1.
16. OT, LVIII.
17. OT, XXXIX, LIII.