Record Number: 12114

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I also return the Grimaldi MS. I have thought the matter over, and looked it over, too. It is very badly done, and is so redolent of twaddle that I fear I can not take it up on any conditions to which you would be disposed to accede. I should require to be ensured three hundred pounds in the first instance without any reference to the Sale-and as I should be bound to stipulate in addition that the work should never be published in Numbers, I think it would scarcely serve your purpose.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

30 Oct 1837

Country:

England

Time

evening: Monday

Place:

city: London
specific address: 48 Doughty Street

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Charles Dickens

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

7 Feb 1812

Socio-Economic Group:

Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder

Occupation:

Journalist and writer

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Wilks

Title:

Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi

Genre:

Biography

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown
Sent to Dickens from Bentley.

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Source Information:

Record ID:

12114

Source:

Print

Author:

Charles Dickens

Editor:

Madeline House

Title:

The Letters of Charles Dickens: Volume One: 1820-1839

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1965

Vol:

1

Page:

326

Additional Comments:

Additional editor: Graham Storey. Published by Clarendon Press as the Pilgrim edition.

Citation:

Charles Dickens, Madeline House (ed.), The Letters of Charles Dickens: Volume One: 1820-1839, (Oxford, 1965), 1, p. 326, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12114, accessed: 19 April 2025

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Additional Comments:

Letter to Richard Bentley. Note 5 (p.326) explains that this letter refers to Wilks?s revision of the memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi the clown (1779-1837), recently bought for ?85 by Bentley, who had asked CD to edit it. CD eventually agreed to undertake the work for ?300 and a share in the profits on condition that he appeared as the editor not the author. It was eventually published on 23rd Feb as Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi (see p. 662 for the agreement between CD and Bentley.)