The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To GEORGE HOGARTH,1 15 JANUARY 1856

MS R. & R. Auctions, 2006.

49 Champs Elysées, Paris

Fifteenth January 1856

My Dear Hogarth.

The Post-Delivery being late to day, I have only time to empower you, in so many words, to convey to Addison and Co.2 my full permission to use the title “Little Dorrit” for the song3 you describe. Mary4 must add it to her Repertoire.5 You astonish me about the Boots.6 I suppose they’ll make a Mess of it, and I thank Heaven that I am out of the way.

With loves from all. | Ever Faithfully

CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. George Hogarth (1783-1870; Dictionary of National Biography), CD’s father-in-law; lawyer, musician and music critic; Secretary, Philharmonic Society, 1850-64: see Pilgrim Letters 1, p. 54n.
• 2. Robert Addison & Co., piano makers, music sellers and publishers, 210 Regent St and 47 King St, Golden Square.
• 3. Music by Gerald Stanley, words by Henry Abrahams, published (1856) by Addison, Hollier & Lucas; CD’s “kind permission” for use of title is acknowledged.
• 4. Mary (“Mamie”) Dickens (1838-96), CD’s eldest daughter.
• 5. “As a child…I used to sing to my father a great deal, and in after years I used to play and sing to him constantly” (interview published in The Young Man and the Young Woman, Christmas No., 1895). For Mamie’s solo in The Lighthouse, see Pilgrim Letters 7, p. 920.
• 6. I.e. The Holly-Tree Inn, Household Words Extra Christmas No., Dec 55. At least eight stage adaptations appeared between 17 Jan and 21 Feb 56 (Ruth F. Glancy, CD’s Christmas Books, Christmas Stories, and Other Short Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography, 1985, pp. 373-4).