DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). Author.
Autograph Letter Signed (“CD.”) to “My Dear Mitton” [Thomas Mitton, friend and solicitor], regarding an engagement with Miss Coutts.
A letter organising an engagement with Mitton, also mentioning a prior appointment arranged with “Miss Coutts” “on business” at “the Banking House”. Angela Burdett-Coutts of the banking dynasty was one of the richest women in England and a personal friend of Dickens’. In 1846 Dickens and Burdett-Coutts founded a home in Shepherd’s Bush, Urania Cottage, whose aim was the aid and rehabilitation of women who either had been sex-workers, or were thought to be at risk of going down that path; a radical idea at the time.
Dickens lived with his family at their house in Devonshire Terrace between 1839-1851, moving in November 1851 to the larger Tavistock House. He wrote some of his most famous works while living there, including: A Christmas Carol, The Old Curiosity Shop, Dombey & Son, and David Copperfield.
