Item Info

Accession Number: 87-669
Physical Description: [2] pages
Transcription:

OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND,
Thursday Third November 1859

My Dear Sir
  I am exceedingly sorry to find from your letter to Wills, that you are vexed by the omission of your paper on the late Mr. Stephenson. In the hope of making it more clear to you why I feel the omission to be necessary, in spite of the paper's being the work of a writer whom I highly esteem and appreciate, I trouble you with these few words of explanation.
  Although you were so kind as to write the notice most promptly, it fell out that the No. for which it was designed could not be kept open for it, as it had to be sent away to the United States. The opportunity intended to be seized was thus - through nobody's failure or fault - lost. In the meantime the subject was anticipated in several other quarters, as much was written about if, as (in my opinion) it demanded or justified. In Household Words, we had a long paper on the life of the father, and I think the public would regard, with a natural impatience and sense of our being a day after The Fair, an article a fortnight hence on the life of the son;-the rather, when a great deal of the general interest of the son's character and career, is derived from the parentage on which we have already expatiated.
  I hope I need not assure you that I come reluctantly to my conclusion, without the slightest approach to any disparagement of the merits of the notice itself. Nothing could be more spirited and vigorous, or more to the purpose. My sole objection is, that the purpose, in its association with these pages, is, by mischance, out of date.
  Believe me always
  Charles Dickens
S. Sidney Esquire

MssDate: Thursday Third November 1859
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Recipient: Sidney (previously Solomon), Samuel, 1813-1883
Provenance: Hamilton 3/20/56, Matlack

Bibliography:

The Letters of Charles Dickens, Pilgrim Edition, Volume Nine, 1859-1861, p. 150.

Country: Creation Place Note:Office of All the Year Round
Country:England
City/Town/Township:London

Creation Year: 1859
Call Number: DL Si14 1859-11-03
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author