91探花

The Charles Dickens Author Collection in the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections contains over 200 works by and about Dickens. Materials range from original serial installments of his novels to various other editions to Dickens-related ephemera.

鈥淏辞锄鈥�

• At the beginning in his writing career, Dickens submitted several short works to various magazines and newspapers under the pseudonym 鈥淏oz.鈥�
• In 1836, these were compiled into his first novel, .鈥�
• Dickens was also the editor of a magazine, , in which he originally published his novel .
• He later went on to edit two other literary magazines,  and .

The Serial Novel

• Dickens pioneered the sale of books in the form of monthly installments.
• Installments were typically 32 pages in length and were filled with advertisements, illustrations, and usually 3 or 4 chapters of text.
• Unlike modern readers, readers of serial novels would often have to wait over a year for all of the installments to be printed.
• This PBS  clip showcases a serial version of one of Dickens鈥� most famous novels, .
•  In addition to David Copperfield, the Mahn Center has original serial installments for 9 other Dickens Novels, including , , , , , , , , and .
• He owed his fame to the affordability of his novels; at a price of 1 Shilling per installment, even members of the lowest class could afford to read Dickens.
• Dickens went on several tours throughout Europe and America, delivering speeches and reading excerpts from his most beloved novels.

In the Theater

• Besides being a renowned author, Dickens was also heavily involved in the theater.
• He even owned his own theater house, 鈥淭avistock House Theater,鈥� in which he showed amateur plays.
• He worked with his close friend and fellow author and playwright Wilkie Collins, producing plays such as  together.

Dickens鈥� Visits to Ohio

• Dickens made visits to several Ohio towns in his first visit to America, as detailed in his 1842 account, American Notes:
  • He made his way from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, later writing 鈥淐incinnati is a beautiful city; cheerful, thriving, and animated.鈥�
  • From Cincinnati he traveled on to Kentucky, and as far as St. Louis, but later returned to Ohio. He took a stagecoach from Cincinnati to Columbus, and then to Sandusky and Lake Erie.
  • Finally, he left Ohio and visited Niagara Falls.
• He also further examined and critiqued American life in some of his letters, which were compiled and combined with excerpts from  and published as .

Legacy in Ohio

• 100 years after Charles Dickens passed through the small town of , The Marion Branch of the Dickens Fellowship held their first meeting, Friday, October 23rd, 1942.
•  is a society devoted to the love of Dickens novels, his plays, and his characters.
• The Mahn Center holds a great number of pamphlets from the Marion Branch (as well as the Philadelphia Branch), and a handwritten journal kept by the founder of the Marion Branch, Dr. Edward Ellsworth Hipsher.

For more information about the Charles Dickens Author Collection or the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collection, please contact Miriam Intrator.

_{Page created by Kevin Dennis, ENG 4940 Research Apprenticeship, Spring 2015}