Books and Manuscripts

Devonshire Terrace (London), January 18, 1851. One conjugate leaf now separated into two pieces, each 6 7/8 x 4 3/8 in. (175 x 111 mm). Autograph letter, signed by Dickens, to George Hartland: "A great accumulation/of correspondence, consequent (word crossed out)/on my having been visiting/in the country, has prevented/my returning an earlier reply to/your note./I am afraid I am not likely/to find any means of assisting you/to such employment as you/seek. What interest I have, I/have already exerted in behalf/of others. But if you can ever/use my recommendation with effect/for any particular object that/may present itself, I shall be/happy to give it you the/fullest extent, and you may/freely command it./Faithfully yours/Charles Dickens/Mr. George Hartland". Creasing from original folds, small separations along same. Mounted in mat, with two illustrations by Joseph Clayton Clark (Kyd) (1856-1937), of Jo and Lawrence Boythorn from Dickens's Bleak House. In frame (26 5/8 x 14 3/4 in.; 676 x 375 mm). This letter is reproduced on p. 264 in The Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens: Volume 6: 1850-1852, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988.

George Hartland was likely a colleague of Dickens's during the time he was writing his Boz sketches at the The Mirror of Parliament in the early 1830s.