Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Autograph letter signed with initials : Baltimore, to William Charles Macready, 1842 Mar. 22.

BIB_ID
290439
Accession number
MA 106.43
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
1842 Mar. 22.
Credit line
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan, before 1913.
Description
1 item (4 p., with address) ; 25.2 cm
Notes
Part of a large collection of correspondence between Charles Dickens and William Charles Macready. Items in the collection are described separately; see MA 106 for more information.
Summary
Hinting that he thinks Macready "view[s] America through the pleasant mirage which often surrounds a thing that has been, but not a thing that is"; saying that he burned his last letter to Macready because he did not want to offend "those who have so enthusiastically and earnestly welcomed" him; explaining that the United States "is not the Republic [he] came to see"; noting that "in every respect but that of National Education, the country disappoints" him; complaining that the American press is "more mean and paltry and silly and disgraceful than any country ever knew"; mentioning the American reaction to Harriet Martineau; reporting that he has been "horribly disgusted by tobacco chewing and tobacco spittle"; describing his American itinerary; mentioning John Forster and David Colden.