Brief description
Autograph letter from John Dickens to Chapman & Hall, 3 October 1842
Label
John Dickens, Dickens's father, struggled with money. He was arrested several times for his debts and sent to debtors' prison when Dickens was 12. After Dickens became successful, John borrowed from Dickens's friends and publishers. Dickens sent his parents to a cottage in Exeter to keep John away from London. John here writes to Chapman & Hall, Dickens's publishers, requesting copies of Dickens's work - "as it will be very painful for me to be left in ignorance of its contents, and fearing that I may be overlooked at such a distance". John perhaps feared being 'overlooked' because Dickens at this time wanted very little to do with his father, whom he called an opportunist and compared to a child. Dickens would in fact visit John only a few weeks after this letter was sent. By the new year John and Elizabeth (Dickens's mother) had returned to London.
Collection
Archives & Manuscripts
Object number
B402
Object type
letter
Production date
3/10/1842
Credit line
Purchased with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, the Friends of the National Library and the Dickens Fellowship.

Letter from John Dickens to Chapman & Hall, 3 October 1842