Beschreibung:

DICKENS, CHARLES. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("CHARLES DICKENS," WITH ELABORATE FLOURISH), ROYAL HOTEL, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, 8 OCTOBER 1858, TO WILLIAM LOGAN, 1P, 8VO, INTEGRAL BLANK . "AS THE CHRISTMAS CAROL IS A FAVORITE OF YOURS..." Dickens writes: "I am greatly obliged to you for your kind note received this morning, and for its accompanying volumes. Accept my cordial thanks. As the Christmas Carol is a favorite of yours, may I hope that you will do me the favor to come and hear it tonight, if you are not otherwise engaged." "Christmas Carol" was the first of his works that Dickens ever performed in public--at a charity benefit in Birmingham in 1853. It remained an audience favorite after he began his regular course of public readings in 1858. These one-man dramatizations, with Dickens whirling around the stage, affecting the different voices of his characters, became an annual London sensation. He usually closed his season with a swing through the regional cities, and in 1867-68 he took his act on a spectacularly successful tour through America. Many believe that the strain of performing his sketches--especially the harrowing "Sikes and Nancy" murder scene from Oliver Twist --hastened his early death at the age of 58 in 1870. William Logan (1813-1879), a missionary and social reformer, shared Dickens's passion for ameliorating the conditions that plagued the poor. An amateur criminologist, he authored "Moral Statistics of Glasgow" (1849) perhaps one of the volumes for which Dickens thanks him.