The Charles Dickens Letters Project

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How to cite:

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].

Database:

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):

friends

editing

Household Words

All the Year Round

Christmas

To CATHERINE FRANCES BIRCH MACREADY,1 8 JANUARY 1858

Replaces extract in Pilgrim Letters 8, p. 503.

Text from facsimile in Swann Auction Galleries online catalogue, March 2015.

OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS,

Friday Eighth January 1858.

My Dear Katie.

I am extremely sorry that I did not have this poem in time for Christmas; and I hope you quite understand how it is that I feel sure it would not be just to you or to our readers, if I were to print the2 verses3 now. I, for my part, fully comprehend why you desire to have them back, and how you feel that your harp, having been thus struck, ought to give out the sound of its melody before next Christmas time.

Let me have another tune, before long, to which I can do justice.

With a whole Leviathan-freight4 of loves and remembrances to all at home,

Believe me ever

Your affectionate friend

CHARLES DICKENS

Miss Kate Macready.

1. Catherine Frances Birch Macready (1834-69); poet, second daughter of CD’s friend William Macready. CD published three of her poems in Household Words in 1856; he published one more in All the Year Round in 1866.
2. CD first wrote 'them', but deleted the final 'm' to leave 'the'.
3. 'verses' written above caret.
4. A contemporary reference to I. K. Brunel's Great Eastern, then known as the Leviathan, being built for the Eastern Steam Navigation Co in Napier's yard on the Thames. With a 692-ft hull and an 82-ft beam, its displacement was six times greater than that of any previous ship; it attracted immense public interest. Finally launched on 31 Jan 1858, after several abortive attempts.