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.

Letter from Charles Dickens, London, to Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1854 January 23 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
420129
Accession number
MA 1352.357
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1854 January 23.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 17.9 x 11.2 cm
Notes
Written from "Tavistock House."
The letter is part of a collection, MA 1352, which consists of letters from Charles Dickens to the Baroness, to her companion Hannah (Meredith) Brown, or the latter's husband, William Brown; with 70 letters written by others to Miss Coutts or to Dickens in his capacity as her unofficial almoner; and a few others. See the collection-level record for more information.
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
Enclosing a letter of thanks from Antonina Matthews (this item is no longer with the letter); referring to changes she is making in her household staff; saying that W. Henry Wills gives an excellent account of Charley's work assisting with correspondence at the Household Words office; saying that he plans to send Charley back to Leipzig for no more than six months; describing his plans for a new novel to be published serially in Household Words (identified by the editors of Dickens' correspondence as Hard Times); adding "The first written page now stares at me from under this sheet of note paper. The main idea of it, is one on which you and I and Mrs Brown have often spoken ; and I know it will interest you as a purpose;" saying that he has a presentation copy of Bleak House ready to send to her as well.