Beschreibung:

DICKENS, Charles. Autograph letter signed ("Ch."), with heart-shaped paraph to "Georgy" [Georgina Hogarth], 9 January 1861. 2 pages, 12mo, on Office of All the Year Round stationery .
DICKENS, Charles. Autograph letter signed ("Ch."), with heart-shaped paraph to "Georgy" [Georgina Hogarth], 9 January 1861. 2 pages, 12mo, on Office of All the Year Round stationery . DICKENS--IN THE MIDST OF WRITING GREAT EXPECTATIONS--GOES TO CHANCERY TO STOP AN UNAUTHORIZED PRODUCTION OF HIS WORK "'We' are in the full swing of stopping managers from playing A Message from the Sea," Dickens writes his sister-in-law. "I privately doubt the strength of our position in the Court of Chancery, if we try it; but it is worth trying. I am aware that Mr Lane of the Britannia sent an emissary to Gad's Hill yesterday. It unfortunately happens that the first man 'we' have to assert the principle against, is a very good man whom I really respect. Will you take charge of the enclosed cheque and end it? I have no news, except that I really hope and believe I am gradually getting well. If I have no check [i.e., bad turn in his health], I hope to be soon discharged by the Medico. He was better yesterday (tell Marguerite with my love), but still ill. I go to him tomorrow. I am going to see Laura today at the Mansion House!" In a postscript he writes: "Best love to dear Marnie and to all." The "we" are his collaborators on All the Year Round , Wilkie Collins, Robert Buchanan, Charles Allston Collins Amelia Edwards, and Harriet Parr. The short story, A Message from the Sea , appeared in an extra Christmas number of the magazine, 13 December 1860 (see lot 74 for the number containing this story). Here Dickens turns to the law with reluctance--not surprisingly considering the devastating satire he carried out against the legal system and the Chancery Courts in Bleak House . Yet given Dickens's immense popularity, pirated editions and unauthorized productions of his work were a constant threat that had to be met.