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, 1855 March 17 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
420531
Accession number
MA 1352.411
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1855 March 17.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 17.9 x 11.3 cm + envelope
Notes
Signed with initials.
Written from "Tavistock House."
Envelope with seal: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street."
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
Asking for instructions regarding his upcoming meeting with Caroline Maynard Thompson and her brother Frederick Maynard: "I quite agree with you that it is immensely difficult -- and yet her position seems plainly to be a perplexed and complicated one;" mentioning that he, his son Charley, and Joshua Bates are going to dine together on Saturday and discuss where Charley might be best placed; sending her a proof of Dinah Mulock Craik's ghost story, so that she can read it before it appears in Household Words; saying that he has taken it upon himself to reform the Royal Literary Fund and that he beleaguered the chair of it, Sir Robert Inglis, for two hours and a half at a recent meeting.