iiaKIMIi 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 CHARLES DICKENS' 
 
 LETTER TO COLBURN
 
 CHARLES DICKENS' 
 
 ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPH COPY 
 
 OF HIS LETTER TO HENRY COLBURN UPON 
 
 THE CONTROVERSY OCCASIONED 
 
 BY THE CONTRIBUTION OF 
 
 WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR 
 
 TO 
 
 PIC NIC PAPERS 
 
 TOGETHER WITH A NOTE TO FORSTER 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT 
 
 April ist, 1841 
 
 w 
 
 LONDON 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS FOR 
 
 CUMBERLAND CLARK 
 
 1918
 
 
 Facsimile Letter 
 
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 g^g®HE ACCOMPANYING LETTER 
 relates to a rather interesting literary 
 quarrel of Charles Dickens, that with 
 Colburn the publisher; as will be seen 
 by the postscript it is a copy sent to Forster to be 
 preserved. 
 
 Dickens' earliest publisher was John Macrone, 
 who published the original issue of the famous 
 u Sketches by Boz ' (afterwards taken over by 
 Chapman and Hall, who bought the copyright for 
 ,£2,250), and though the publisher had rather the 
 best of the bargain with the young author, when 
 Macrone died, leaving a widow and several child- 
 ren in destitute circumstances, Dickens with his 
 usual generosity and large heartedness could not 
 resist the appeal which was made on their behalf, 
 and willingly fell in with a proposal that he should 
 
 9
 
 edit a publication comprised of gratuitous con- 
 tributions by various authors in aid of Macrone's 
 family. 
 
 Henry Colburn was to be the publisher, and the 
 title decided was " The Pic Nic Papers, by Various 
 Hands, edited by Charles Dickens," but, as will 
 be seen by this letter, Colburn's and Dickens' ideas 
 of the duties and privileges of an " Editor' 1 
 clashed most considerably, and this led to a pretty 
 little quarrel which quite broke off the relations 
 between the two. The incident was responsible for 
 the only letter known in which Dickens used " cuss 
 words"; this letter only came to light a few years 
 ago, and is given in full in Mr. John C. Eckel's 
 " First Editions of Charles Dickens "; in it Dickens 
 says (writing to Leigh Hunt under date July 19, 
 1842): "Mr. Colburn exercised my duties, and 
 accepted and rejected Papers at his most literary 
 will and pleasure. I resisted this monstrous in- 
 decency in Mr. Colburn for a whole year; and then 
 wrote him that as it was a work of charity and 
 I wanted his money for Mrs. Macrone, I would 
 give him his own way — which, if it were my own 
 case, and I wanted bread, I would never do. I 
 damned his eyes (by implication and construction) 
 
 10
 
 at the same time ; and declined to hold any further 
 correspondence with him, on any subject. . . . 
 We fell out about a paper of Landor's, which he 
 said ' his literary friend had told him wasn't Pro- 
 testant ' ! !!!!!!!" 
 
 Here by happy chance is the very letter Dickens 
 refers to, or at least an authentic copy of it in his 
 own hand, with a delightful postscript about the 
 " sneaking vagabond"! To a man of Dickens' 
 sensitive temperament the cool way in which the 
 publisher thus trespassed on the Editor's privi- 
 leges was enough to anger him to breaking point, 
 but our Author had still further cause of complaint 
 against Colburn — for trade purposes the latter con- 
 sidered the work should run to three volumes, so 
 he calmly annexed an American book called 
 "Charcoal Sketches," by J. C. Neal of Phila- 
 delphia, which he added to the " Pic Nic Papers' 
 without a word of acknowledgement as to its 
 source, thus casting a serious slur on Dickens; as 
 late as 1870 the latter was charged by Dr. R. 
 Shelton Mackenzie in his " Life of Dickens" with 
 having helped himself to Neal's sketches when his 
 supply of matter ran short, but the statement is 
 effectually disposed of in a letter from Dickens to 
 
 1 1
 
 his friend Edmund Yates in 1859, where he em- 
 phatically says " of that volume I didn't know and 
 don't know anything." 
 
 It is rather interesting to note that about fifteen 
 years later Forster married the widow of Henry 
 Colburn. 
 
 CUMBERLAND CLARK. 
 
 London. 
 1918. 
 
 12
 
 i Devonshire Terrace 
 
 York Gate, Regents Park, 
 
 April the First 1 84 1 
 
 Sir, 
 
 As I address you upon a matter of business, 
 and not a mere question of gentlemanly and 
 courteous treatment, I count upon receiving an 
 answer. 
 
 Last June, you objected to the quality of some 
 essays by Mr. Walter Savage Landor which I had 
 forwarded to you for insertion in the Pic Nic 
 Papers, in my capacity as Editor of that work. 
 
 Mr. Forester, himself an intimate friend of Mr. 
 Landor's, saw you upon the subject (I being then 
 out of town), and pointed out to you your mistake 
 you withdrew to reconsider it. 
 
 Since then, I have several times requested to 
 see a complete proof of these articles, in which 
 you had — without any communication with me — 
 stopped the Printer some weeks previously. Of 
 these applications you have taken no notice what- 
 ever. In the mean time I have with-held my 
 paper, in the hope of bringing you by that means 
 to do your duty. 
 
 13
 
 It is apart from my object to characterize this 
 proceeding of yours in reference to myself, or to 
 discuss your competency to sit in judgment on the 
 productions of Mr. Landor. I content myself with 
 asserting my right as Editor of the book to choose 
 the matter for its pages, and denying any authority 
 on your part to interfere with my selection. 
 
 If the book were publishing as my own property 
 or for my own profit, I would not forego this 
 right though I retarded its publication a dozen 
 years and wanted bread the while. But as the case 
 is one of charity, and as I cannot resist, and do 
 not hold myself justified in resisting, the urgent 
 appeals of the lady for whose benefit our price is 
 to be paid, I will no longer delay it by with- 
 holding my contribution. I have therefore to 
 request that you will, in reply to this, send me 
 back that manuscript of Mr. Landor's which you 
 refuse to print, and in reference to which, you 
 have taken my office on yourself; — in order that 
 I may return it to that gentleman with a statement 
 of the circumstances leading to his receiving it. 
 This done, the Printer will receive my tale, and 
 the book will be completed. 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 14
 
 [Letter on back] 
 
 My dear Forster 
 
 Here is a copy of the letter to Colburn — sent, 
 along with an imaginary gauntlet, today. Pre- 
 serve it, for I have no other. The letter to Landor 
 I will write when I have received an answer from 
 this sneaking vagabond. 
 
 Faithfully yours always. 
 
 C. D. 
 
 April The First 1841. 
 
 15
 
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