Description
INSCRIBED BY CHARLES DICKENS ON THE DAY BEFORE PUBLICATION TO HIS FRIEND, THE EARL OF MULGRAVE, WHOM HE MET ON THE TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING TO AMERICA TO UNDERTAKE THE TOUR DESCRIBED IN THIS BOOK: 1842 FIRST EDITION OF DICKENS’ AMERICAN NOTES
DICKENS, Charles. American Notes for General Circulation. London: Chapman and Hall, 1842. Two volumes. Octavo, early 20th-century three-quarter polished tan calf, gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, burgundy and green morocco spine labels, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. Housed in custom half morocco clamshell box.
First edition, first issue, of Dickens’ “record of impressions” of “raw” America—“far from being a model for the earth to copy”—presentation copy inscribed by Dickens on the half title the day before publication, presumably as a token of appreciation for a friendship begun on his trip to America, and continued in Montreal immediately after the American tour described in these volumes, which was his inspiration for Martin Chuzzlewit: “The Earl of Mulgrave from his friend, Charles Dickens [flourish], Eighteenth October 1842.”
In January of 1842, Dickens and a small entourage of family and friends set sail on the Britannia for America. On this trip, he met and became friends with George Augustus Contantine Phipps, the Earl of Mulgrave, who was stationed in Montreal as an officer in charge of a British garrison. In May, with the tour almost over and Dickens already contemplating the book that he would write, they arranged a short tour of Canada to fill the days left until they embarked for England. “Dickens extended his [1842] American tour to come to Montreal for 19 days at the invitation of the Earl of Mulgrave, then an officer in the Scots Fusilier Guards, whom he met on the transatlantic crossing. The Earl, who would later serve as Nova Scotia’s Governor-General, persuaded Dickens to direct three plays for the amusement of the British regimental officers and their wives in the local garrison. It didn’t take much to persuade him to make his stage debut as an actor in Montreal as well. As a stagestruck clerk in England Dickens went to the theatre every night for three years and longed to be an actor” (The Métropolitain, Dec. 16, 2011). The official publication date for American Notes is recorded as October 19, 1842; this particular copy is inscribed the day before official publication, and was certainly presented by Dickens to the Earl of Mulgrave as a token of the friendship they struck up shortly after the tour described in Dickens’ book.
Though popular in England, American Notes offended American readers because of Dickens’ “somewhat patronizing observations about the rawness and narrowness of life and manners in America” (Benet, 30). In the course of his travels Dickens was able to call upon President John Tyler in the White House, observing that: “He looked somewhat worn and anxious, and well he might; being at war with everybody.” Although generally impressed by what he found in America, Dickens could not abide the existence of slavery in the United States, and the penultimate chapter is devoted to a criticism of the practice. This first American journey was his inspiration for Martin Chuzzlewit. With preliminary pages misnumbered as called for. Dickens initially wrote and intended an introductory chapter to appease the American audience, but this chapter was cancelled, for fear of further insult, and, as a result, all first issues carry “xvi” as the first pagination for the last page of the Contents. Eckel 113. Gimbel A66. Smith II: 3. Old dealer description tipped to advertisement leaf facing the half title.
Fine condition. A very rare inscribed association copy.
