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britannica - americana
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DICKENS CHARLES
(1812-1870).
L.A.S. « Charles Dickens », Londres 1
er
septembre 1842,
à Thomas C. GRATTAN, consul britannique à Boston ;
1 page in-4, adresse avec cachet de cire rouge et marques
postales ; en anglais ; sous chemise demi-maroquin vert.
3 000 / 4 000 €
Au retour de son voyage en Amérique, Dickens maudit l’impôt
sur lerevenu, et parle du droit d’auteur.
[Thomas Colley GRATTAN (1792-1864), écrivain et romancier irlandais, était
consul britannique à Boston. Accueilli avec enthousiasme et fêté comme
un héros lors de son premier voyage en Amérique, à Boston et New
York, Dickens, qui était accompagné de sa femme, ne tarda pas à être
irrité contre les Américains, qui ne reconnaissaient pas le droit d’auteur,
et gagnaient des fortunes avec ses livres sans qu’il touche la moindre
somme. Il revient en Angleterre alors que Sir Robert Peel vient de créer
un impôt sur les revenus dépassant 150 livres par an. Il évoque dans sa
lettre le ténor anglais John BRAHAM (1774-1856), qui faisait alors une
tournée en Amérique, et l’éditeur anglais Thomas LONGMAN (1771-1842),
qui a publié de nombreux auteurs (Walter Scott, Coleridge, Wordsworth,
etc., d’où la réflexion sardonique de Dickens sur sa collection.]
Il avai reçu un mot aimable de Grattan avant de quitter l’Amérique,
et le rassure qu’ils se portent bien tous les deux… Tout le monde maudit
l’impôt sur le revenu, sauf les hommes à qui cela donne une position ;
il n’y a rien d’autre de nouveau dans cet hémisphère. Il a suivi la question
sur la protection internationale du droit d’auteur, et il se plaint qu’on
a contrefait une lettre en y apposant sa signature dans les journaux
américains – ce qui ne le surprend pas le moins du monde. Ce serait
plutôt une once d’honnêteté ou un peu de bon sens de leur part qui
l’étonnerait. Il charge Grattan de saluer Braham de sa part, quand il le
verra... Le plus vieux des Longman vient juste de mourir. Il est tombé
de son cheval et ne s’en est jamais remis. Dickens ne sais pas à qui
il a légué sa précieuse collection de crânes d’auteurs...
DICKENS CHARLES
(1812-1870).
Signed autograph letter, signed « Charles Dickens », London
1 September 1842, to Thomas C. GRATTAN, Irish novelist and
British Consul at Boston; 1 page in-4 format, integral address
with postmarks [two British postmarks, one of which states,
“Ship Letter,” and the other is a cancellation stamp--”New
York Ship, Sept. 18”] and red wax seal : “
By the Great Western
(the first regularly scheduled transatlantic steamship) Second
September 1842”;
in English ; green half-morocco folder.
3 000 / 4 000 €
Upon returning from his trip, Dickens writes to Thomas Grattan
“cursing” income taxes in America and discusses copyright matters.
This letter is addressed to Thomas Colley GRATTAN (1792-1864), Irish
novelist and writer, also British Consul at Boston and thus familiar with
America. Dickens first trip to America was a disappointment for both
guest and hosts. The adored English novelist fell from grace almost
immediately upon his arrival in Boston when, at a dinner given in his
honor, he pleaded for an International Anglo-American copyright law.
For
Sketches by Boz, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club,
and
Oliver Twist,
all American best sellers, Dickens had not received
a penny. To the Americans, the writer had disgraced his hosts and
himself by raising the subject of money. For Dickens, the constant
harassment by the press, crowds and politicians, made his stay, and
even a visit to the White House, unbearable. He happily returned to
England in June, in time to find that Peel had instituted a tax on income
over £150 a year. In the letter, Dickens evokes John Braham was the
great English tenor who, in the twilight of his career, made a largely
unsuccessful trip through America from 1840-1842. The publisher
Thomas Longman had died just three days prior to Dickens’s letter,
and the sardonic comment on “authors’ skulls” is a reference to the
large number of writers, whom Longman published, including Scott,
Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey.
“As I had a kind note from you before leaving America (which is still
unanswered) let me report that we are all well and happy, as I shall
hope to hear you are--that everybody is cursing the Income Tax, except
the men to whom it gives places--and that there is nothing else new in
this hemisphere. You will have seen that I followed up the International
copyright question, and that they have forged a letter under my hand
in the American Papers --which does not surprise me in the least.
Nothing but Honesty or common sense would startle me from such a
quarter. If you should foregather any of these odd days with Braham,
commend me to him heartily, and pray do the like with all manner of
remembrance from Mrs. Dickens to Mrs. Grattan--and to your sons
and daughter. The older Longman is just dead. He fell from his horse
and never recovered. I have not heard to whom he has bequeathed
his valuable collection of authors’ skulls....”