The San Francisco call., 1897-12-12
DICKENS LAST LETTER

Inc New Amsterdam Book Company in Sc
leCtlng fronuspiece for the volume of Dick
ems writings could hardly have made a more
appropriate choice than the last letter The
eIea' hoVellst ever Penned. 1t is reproduced
IN fac-simile i'll "New Lamps f,r Old" and
was written the day before Dickens died IN
charles Kent, and shows how suddenly and
uHe4 pecteoly Tor him must have been the end ::
GADsHILL PLACE, HIeHAM
Wednesday, Eighth June, 1870.
my Dear Kent; Tomorrow Is a very bad day for
me 10 make call as in addition to my usual once
business have mass Of account, TO settle with
hs. But I hope may be ready for you at 8
o'cl' OK. II can't be, why shan't be-
1od must really get rio of those opal enioymeuts
They are too overpowering.
hese violent delights have vioIsnt ends 7
think 1t was father of your church who made
the wise remark to young genuema1 who got
up early cor stayed out late) at Verona Everaffec
uOnately & u
The pathos which always characterized
the authors keenest humor seemed exempt
ned IN hls own last words for on June 9,
1870, IL was indeed Il case OF ''shan't be-
MI Kttton's Introduction TO his carefully
edited work is by no means the least impOr-
tant part of the volume, for he explains
mlnutely the origin and reasons for many OF
the sketches which it contains. He says
The fact that the essays, reviews and other
papers here collected for the first time have
never tuutu now been reprinted viii doub:-
less surprise even those who claim familiarity
with everything which emauated from the
prolific pen OF Charles Dickens. Many of the
fugitive pieces included in the present vol
ume were apparently unknown to bibIiog-
raphers as the production OF the great
novelist, snd il is only by means of careful
research among the manuscripts in the For
ster collection at South KensingUon Museum
and elsewhere that I have been enabled 10
identify several OF the more interesting OF
th(ss occasional contributions to journalistic
-. kltton has traced some of ckens'
eyrliest efforts to his unsigned contributions
tc Benueys Miscellany" launched bv
Richard Bentley in 1897, and gives as reason
for "Ohver Twist first appearing as G. serial
in that journal Uhat Dickens had agreed to ac-
cept the position of conductor of the "Nfis-
celany'' for fee OF $50 month, whilc at the
same time it was stipulated that he should
furnish the magazine with a serial romance.
L OF the more important articles contributed
y y Dickens 10 the Examiner Mr. Kitton says:
"ln the earlier days of the Examiner the
pages OF that defunct jocInal were en-
riched by contributions from such distin-
guished writers as Leigh Hunt. William Haz-
lit and Charles Lamb
During John Forsters editorship Charles
Dickens supplied its columns with several
articles various subjects, the majority of
which have been hitherto uudetected by
photographers. Although the authorship OF
these ephemeral papers has never been ac-
knOwledged recorded, there can be no
doubt as to their origin, for the original
manuscripts, in Dickens autograph, are still!
extant Special in terest attaches to
his notable criticisms of end comments upon
the work OF his two famous contemporaries
George Cruikshauk and John Leech partly
reproduced in Mr.. FoTsters' biography and
now reprinted d in extenso for the first time"
Throughout the Introduction Mr.. Kitton
supplies many interesting facts and data