Brief description
Document for rights to use 'Household Words' with note by Charles Dickens's agent Arthur Smith, 16 May 1859
Label
Dickens edited (or "conducted") a weekly magazine called Household Words from 1850 to 1859. In 1858 Dickens separated from his wife and circulated a letter describing the marriage's failure. Household Words's publishers, Bradbury & Evans, refused to reprint it in their satirical magazine, Punch. Dickens cut ties and started an effectively identical publication called All the Year Round. Both parties bid for the name and assets of Household Words in a public auction on 16 May 1859. Dickens's tour manager Arthur Smith and his publisher Fred Chapman bid against each other to artificially price out Bradbury & Evans. and Dickens won the auction at £3,550 (£374,000 in 2024). Bradbury & Evans had to publish their magazine under a new name, Once a Week.
Collection
Archives & Manuscripts
Object number
B415
Object type
document
Production date
16 May 1859
Credit line
Purchased with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, the Friends of the National Library and the Dickens Fellowship.

Rights to 'Household Words', 16 May 1859