BIB_ID
127027
Accession number
MA 1352.1-683
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
England and France, 1839-1866.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
683 items ; various sizes
Notes
Letters in the collection have been written primarily from two locations in London, Devonshire Terrace (1839-1851) and Tavistock House (1851-1860), but there are also numerous letters from Broadstairs, Dover, and Gad's Hill Place, Higham, in Kent, as well as letters written during Dickens's trips to France (particularly Boulogne) and Italy. The collection also includes letters written during Dickens's reading tours, including two letters from the United States (Baltimore and Boston) and letters from cities throughout England.
The collection includes two playbills for "The Lighthouse," which have been cataloged as MA 1352.426a-b and are housed separately.
Included in MA 1352 are a collection of envelopes that cannot be matched to particular letters, either because their postmarks are illegible or incomplete, or because they are not postmarked. Thirty-six envelopes are addressed to Angela Burdett-Coutts, most but not all in Dickens's hand or with other indications that they were sent by Dickens (his signature on the front, or use of his seal or stationery). One envelope is addressed in Catherine Dickens's hand, but does not correspond to any of her letters in MA 1352. One envelope, postmarked 6 Juillet 56 and sent from Boulogne, probably accompanied Charles Dickens's letter to Angela Burdett-Coutts written July 5, 1856, which is held by the University of Texas. Thirteen envelopes are addressed to Hannah Meredith Brown (5 addressed to “Miss Meredith,” 8 to “Mrs. Brown”) and five envelopes are addressed to Dr. William Brown.
The collection includes two playbills for "The Lighthouse," which have been cataloged as MA 1352.426a-b and are housed separately.
Included in MA 1352 are a collection of envelopes that cannot be matched to particular letters, either because their postmarks are illegible or incomplete, or because they are not postmarked. Thirty-six envelopes are addressed to Angela Burdett-Coutts, most but not all in Dickens's hand or with other indications that they were sent by Dickens (his signature on the front, or use of his seal or stationery). One envelope is addressed in Catherine Dickens's hand, but does not correspond to any of her letters in MA 1352. One envelope, postmarked 6 Juillet 56 and sent from Boulogne, probably accompanied Charles Dickens's letter to Angela Burdett-Coutts written July 5, 1856, which is held by the University of Texas. Thirteen envelopes are addressed to Hannah Meredith Brown (5 addressed to “Miss Meredith,” 8 to “Mrs. Brown”) and five envelopes are addressed to Dr. William Brown.
Provenance
The letters formed part of the Burdett-Coutts sale (Sotheby, 17 May 1922); they were purchased for Oliver W. Barrett in whose collection they remained until it was sold by his son (Parke-Bernet, 31 October 1951).
Summary
Being a collection of 683 autograph letters signed, consisting primarily of 608 letters from Charles Dickens to Angela Burdett-Coutts, to her companion Hannah Meredith Brown, or the latter's husband, William Brown; with 75 letters written by others to Miss Coutts or to Dickens in his capacity as her unofficial almoner. The letters cover, among other subjects, the many charitable projects that Angela Burdett-Coutts and Dickens worked on together, especially Urania Cottage, a home for "fallen women" in Shepherd's Bush, funded by Burdett-Coutts and run by Dickens; the writing of multiple novels, among them Bleak House, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit, and numerous Christmas Books, as well as Dickens's regular contributions to the journal Household Words (where he was also editor); events in the life of the Dickens family, especially the education and early career of his son Charles, to which Angela Burdett-Coutts contributed, the death of his daughter Dora in 1851, and his separation from Catherine Dickens in 1858; his theatrical activities, particularly in connection with Wilkie Collins's plays "The Lighthouse" and "The Frozen Deep;" his reading tours and travels; cultural and political events, including the Crimean War and the reign of Napoleon III; and news of mutual friends and acquaintances. Burdett-Coutts's philanthropic work also connected her with reformers and writers of the period, among them Hans Christian Andersen, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Harriet Martineau. Letters in the collection have been described individually in 683 separate catalog records; see related records for more information.
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