DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). Novelist.
Autograph Letter Signed to the Rev Theodore Buckley, 1 page 8vo with integral blank, Tavistock House, 'Christmas Day', 1852. Thanking Buckley for a book, and reminding him that Mrs Dickens was hoping to see him on the 31st (for the New Year's Eve party at Tavistock House).
This letter is published in The Letters of Charles Dickens, Pilgrim Edition, Vol. 6, page 837, with the following helpful footnote:

'The Rev. Theodore Alois William Buckley (1825-56; DNB, classical scholar and miscellaneous writer. Self-taught from age of 12; read extensively in British Museum; helped by the Greek scholar George Burges and other patrons to a servitorship at Christ Church, Oxford, 1845; BA 1849; for a time Chaplain. Took opium and, later, excessive alcohol, supposedly to combat bad health. Moved to London; wrote for periodicals and booksellers. Translated and edited numerous Greek and Latin texts for Bohn, 1849-53. edited Chaucer, Milton and other English writers for Routledge; wrote a number of popular and educational books. Contributed 18 papers to H[ousehold] W[ords], July 51-Sep 55.'

The Pilgrim Edition also identifies the book which Buckley presented to Dickens as almost certainly Great Cities of the Middle Ages, 1853, published in December 1852.
[No: 23078]