Lot 212
Dickens, Charles
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 5 September 2007 at 12:00 BST
Description
Autograph letter signed, to Richard Greene "Dear Sir. I am happy to acknowledge the receipt of your kind letter, and to assure you that Mr Carlyle, Mr Forster and myself, hail with the greatest interest and satisfaction the prospect of our appeal being responded to the citizens of Lichfield. No help rendered to these poor ladies could possibly be so grateful and welcome as aid coming from the place that boasts of having given Johnson birth.
As I am at present staying in Paris (where I am very busily occupied with my own pursuits) and as I am obliged to return there immediately, I cannot have the honor of attending the proposed meting. But even if this ability were not upon me I should have had a great desire to excuse myself from obtruding any personal appeal of mine upon your citizens. I feel it so much more natural and becoming in me to leave them to their own generous impulses.
My address in Paris is no. 49 Avenue des Champs Elysees, where I shall hope to have the pleasure of again hearing from you at your convenience. My dear sir, Faithfully yours Charles Dickens. Richard Greene Esquire", 3 pages, Tavistock House, Saturday 3rd November 1855
Footnote
Note: The letters of Charles Dickens, Pilgrim edition, volume VII, 1853-1855, p.736.