[Literature] Dickens, Charles Autograph Letter, signed

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.

(Jo, Bleak House) by Joseph Clayton Clark (Kyd) 1856-1937