What the Dickens?!!

I’ve been doing some historic walks on my treadmill round New York. Yesterday the guide mentioned Charles Dickens visiting New York in 1842, we were in Five Points, America’s first slum. Well, that got my attention, what a journey that must have been! 

This then caused me to do some research today and I discovered that Dickens penned five of the 14 top-selling books in America between 1837 and 1842. He was read not only by the educated middle and upper classes but also by the labouring classes, sometimes aloud for those who could not read.

I knew Dickens had been famous in his own lifetime in Britain but had no idea that his fame had extended beyond the pond. In 1841 the monthly instalments of The Old Curiosity Shop had arrived by ship with people on the dockside shouting “Is Little Nell Dead?” as they waited for the next instalment to learn of her fate.

Much of Dicken’s trip was about seeing the prisons, the asylums and the poor areas. But on his third night in New York a ball was held in his honour with the great and the good and it cost $80K, about $2.6m in today’s money.
While over in America Dickens raised the issue of copyright. He had many American followers but received nothing for his work as the magazines, newspapers and book publishers simply got hold of his work and reproduced it. As he repeated this complaint the newspapers started to turn against him with their reporting of his visit. He did continue with his tour and after he got back to Britain he wrote about it in American Notes for General Circulation, punning on the current practice of forging currency and again commenting on the lack of copyright protection of his work. 

One month after his book had arrived in America it had been reprinted and 100,000 copies sold, again without one penny going to the author.

There were hostile reactions to this book so I decided I needed to read it for myself and have downloaded it onto my kindle. Despite the reactions, Dickens remained a favourite author of the Americans and he travelled back there again in 1867. He made 76 appearances and gave readings of his work netting him the equivalent of $2.6m today. So at least he found a way to get some return for his writing.

I found this information in this excellent article by Douglas Muzzio if you wish to read more about his visits.