A vibrant and colorful exhibition at the Parkway Central Library highlights one of the most enduring legacies of Charles Dickens's genius: the unforgettable characters he brought to life. By some estimates there are 989 named characters in his works, with names like Toodle, Tappertit, and Tattycoram; Buzfuz, Bumble, and Bucket.

Each of Dickens’s novels is populated with a profusion of unique personalities who are animated by the extraordinary power the author had of seeing his characters and making us see them. Driven by a fascination with human behavior and fueled by his gift for precise recall, Dickens often remarked that his characters and stories “took possession” of him.

The writer G. K. Chesterton said that “The whole of Dickens’s genius consisted of taking hints and turning them into human beings.” In putting pen to paper Dickens interwove satire and sentimentalism to create some of the most bizarre and eccentric characters in fiction. Of Sairey Gamp, the befuddled, sadistic midwife of The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, Dickens writes, “The face of Mrs. Gamp – the nose in particular – was somewhat red and swollen, and it was difficult to enjoy her society without becoming conscious of a smell of spirits.”  Of the immortal Samuel Pickwick he remarks: "To those who knew that the gigantic brain of Pickwick was working beneath that forehead, and that the beaming eyes of Pickwick were twinkling behind those glasses, the sight was indeed an interesting one.”

To aid his creativity Dickens made lists of odd names, gleaned from church registers, tombstones, and a resource called Bowditch's Surnames. According to biographer Peter Ackroyd, Dickens's characters did not exist until he had named them and "it is that, which like a spell, brings forth their appearance and behaviour in the world." Facsimiles of original and published illustrations, set against a backdrop of London Street scenes from the collections of the Rare Book Department, Theatre, and Print and Picture Collections bring these characters to life in a vivid and imaginative way.  

The exhibition will be on view in the West Gallery on the first floor until March 23rd, 2012 and can be seen during Parkway Central's normal hours of operation: 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Friday; 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Saturday; 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. Sunday. For more information on the Free Library's Year of Dickens, including a full calendar of events, visit freelibrary.org/dickens.

Tags: Exhibitions, Rare Book Department, Year of Dickens

Yesterday marked 200 years since the death of Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe (1787–1811), mother of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar was just 2 years-old when his mother died. 

Born in England, Eliza Poe was the daughter of two actors. She made her stage debut at the age of nine as a character named Biddy Bellair in David Garrick’s farce Miss in Her Teens. Coming to America with her mother in 1795, Eliza performed in a number of successful productions. She married fellow actor Charles Hopkins at the age of 15, and six months after his death in 1806 married David Poe, Jr. Eliza had three children with David: William Henry Leonard in 1807, Edgar in 1809, and daughter Rosalie in 1810.

The Rare Book Department is home to two extraordinary mementos of Poe's mother. The first is a copy of Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson, signed "E. Poe Born Arnold. 1807." In 1807 Eliza was 20, already widowed and recently remarried. Susanna Rowson was not only a novelist but an actress who performed in the same circuit as Poe's mother. Their paths crossed in both Alexandria, Virginia and Boston. 

The other item is a miniature portrait on ivory. According to biographer Kenneth Silverman, Poe carried this miniature with him on his final trip to Richmond in 1849, and must have had it in his possession at his death, although what happened to it immediately following is anybody’s guess. The miniature was used by John Ingram in his biography (1880), then lost, but subsequently recovered by an American, Ivan Katz, at a Paris flea market in 1955. It is the only known portrait of Poe’s mother. This precious object, together with a small, empty jewel case, was long thought to constitute Edgar’s entire inheritance from his parents, who both died when he was two years old.

Tags: Exhibitions, Rare Book Department

Today marks the opening of the eagerly anticipated Rare Book Department exhibition on the life and work of Charles Dickens. "From the Desk of Charles Dickens: Celebrating the Great Writer at 200" brings together printed works, correspondence, autograph manuscripts, and original drawings, as well as objects Dickens used throughout his life.

From the tip of his quill pen Dickens conducted his life—conscious and in control of all the moving parts. He took such an interest in so many things: art-directing his publications, producing amateur theatricals, raising money for the less fortunate, planning outings and holidays with his family and friends, and expressing gentle and sometimes not-so-gentle concern for their well-being.

Dickens was an exceptional correspondent; many of his letters are every bit as engaging as his published works. Letters to close friends where he jokes and teases them affectionately, instructions to the artists who were illustrating his works, correspondence explaining his worldview and his reasons for writing what he did illuminate the way Dickens lived and worked.

The exhibition shows the works that were the product of the author’s creative genius and places them in the context of the life of a man for whom no detail was too small and who wielded the power of his celebrity for the causes he believed in and for the good of those he cared about.

The Free Library is home to one of the finest Charles Dickens collections in the world, mostly owing to the generosity of two distinguished benefactors. William McIntire Elkins, a Philadelphian and a trustee of the Free Library, bequeathed the Library a complete record of Dickens’s literary and public career. D. Jacques Benoliel, a Philadelphia industrialist, focused his collecting on Dickens's lifelong passion for the theatre. His collection of autograph letters and playbills was donated to the Free Library by his family after his death in 1954 and has been extensively augmented from an endowment set up by the family in Mr. Benoliel’s memory.

The exhibition runs through May 25, 2012 and can be viewed Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Rare Book Department on the 3rd floor of the Parkway Central Library. Tours of the general collection are conducted at 11:00 a.m. To learn more about the Free Library's Charles Dickens Collection or for more information on events related to our Year of Dickens visit freelibrary.org/dickens.

Tags: Exhibitions, Rare Book Department, Year of Dickens