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 Hannah Meredith Brown, 1854 July 22 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
421265
Accession number
MA 1352.555
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1854 July 22.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (1 page) ; 19.8 x 12.2 cm
Notes
Signed with initials.
Written on the stationery of the Office of Household Words.
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
Writing that her "mysterious letter" has puzzled him greatly: "What can it be in Sloane Street - whether a bust - a statue - a marble boy in need of explanation - has been running strangely in my head;" mentioning that he has been busy all day and is engaged to go out of town with John Forster and Clarkson Stanfield, and thus he will not be able to clear up the matter for himself; exclaiming "What CAN It Be!!!"