The Charles Dickens Letters Project

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Individual letter:

Dickens, Charles. To [addressee], [date of letter]. Charles Dickens Letters Project, ed. Leon Litvack, Emily Bell, Lydia Craig and Jeremy Parrott (London: Dickens Fellowship). [URL of individual letter], [date of access].

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Charles Dickens Letters Project, ed. Leon Litvack, Emily Bell, Lydia Craig and Jeremy Parrott (London: Dickens Fellowship), DickensLetters.com.

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Period:

1851-1860

Theme(s):

social issues

public recognition

celebrity

To C.D. COLLET,1 20 FEBRUARY 1860

MS Private.

TAVISTOCK HOUSE,

TAVISTOCK SQUARE, LONDON. W.C.

Monday Twentieth February 1860.

Sir

I have already communicated to Mr. Milner Gibson2 the information that I cannot possibly preside at the meeting you intend to hold.3 Perhaps you are not aware of this? Tomorrow between 12 and 2, I shall be at the office of All The Year Round, if you should still wish to see me.

C. D. Collet Esquire

Faithfully Yours

CHARLES DICKENS

1. Collet Dobson Collet (1812-98; Dictionary of National Biography), radical, tax reformer, and teacher of singing; secretary of the Association for Promoting the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge. Author of History of the Taxes on Knowledge, 2 vols, 1899.
2. Thomas Milner Gibson (1806-84; Dictionary of National Biography), MP for Manchester: see Pilgrim Letters 4, p. 106n. President of the Association.
3. The Association’s annual meeting was held, 22 Feb, at St Martin’s Hall: Charles Knight proposed the vote of thanks (The Times, 23 Feb).