Charles Dickens Autograph Letter Signed.

DICKENS, Charles.

$4,000.00

Item Number: 132057

Rare autograph letter signed by great English novelist Charles Dickens. One page, octavo, folded, the letter reads, “Devonshire Terrace Eighteenth April 1844. My Dear Mitton, I am sorry to say that plan won’t do. Because although Coutts’s were so prompt and polite last time, still they did say ‘that it wasn’t the kind of note’ &c &c – as I wrote you at the time. Indeed, I remember to have often heard that they avoid discounting… I wish to Heaven you could think of any other way. I will come down today, between 2 and 3. I have not seen Thomson yet. He wrote that he was coming. Likewise that his house had not bedrooms enough… and talking wildly about Houses near Belgrave Square!! Faithfully Always / CD.” The recipient, Thomas Mitton was a close friend and financial adviser of Dickens’ to whom he wrote frequently, particularly concerning his frustrations with book deals and travel expenses. Debt was a primary motivating factor throughout Dickens’ life despite his success as a novelist. In mid-1843, sales of Martin Chuzzlewit were falling off, and his wife, Catherine, was pregnant with their fifth child. Matters worsened when Chapman & Hall, his publishers, threatened to reduce his monthly income by £50 if sales dropped further. By the end of the year, Dickens saw a change in his fortunes with the publication of A Christmas Carol which sold out days after publication and was released in thirteen subsequent editions by the end of 1844. In near fine condition. An excellent association.

English writer and social critic Charles Dickens created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius.