The Unpublished Letters of Charles Dickens to Mark Lemon

A limited edition copy of this volume, containing the letters of Charles Dickens to Mark Lemon, playwright and founder of Punch magazine, from 1847 to 1870. Mark Lemon's friendship with Charles Dickens was a close and long-lasting one. Although he contributed to Bentley's Miscellany while Dickens was editor, it is unlikely that the two men met until after the first issue of Punch appeared. In April 1843 Lemon was formally invited to dinner by Dickens and their friendship grew. Lemon and Punch stalwart Gilbert à Beckett adapted Dickens's Chimes for the Adelphi in February 1844. The Haunted Man followed in 1848. A shared passion for amateur theatricals cemented their friendship. Lemon appeared as Brainworm and Dickens as Bobadil in Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, which played at the Royalty and at the St James Theatre in the autumn of 1845. The production was transferred to Manchester and Liverpool in the summer of 1847, and in the following year the play was revived in London, alternating with The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which Lemon appeared as Falstaff alongside Dickens. During the more lengthy provincial tour that followed Lemon and Dickens supplemented their Shakespearian repertoire with roles in various farces. In a campaign to raise funds for the Guild of Literature and Art, Lemon and Dickens appeared again in Jonson's play at Lytton's Knebworth in November 1850, and in the following May, after a performance in Lytton's Not So Bad As We Seem, Lemon joined Dickens in Mr Nightingale's Diary, a piece that they had co-written. Further provincial tours followed late in 1851 and in 1852. Lemon also took part in productions at Dickens's small private theatre in Tavistock House, notably in Wilkie Collins's melodramas The Lighthouse and The Frozen Deep. Lemon and his family had become frequent visitors to Dickens's home since the latter had moved to Tavistock House in November 1851, though the new neighbours were already fellow members of a weekly walking club, had taken nocturnal strolls around London together, and had been on excursions, such as a tour of Salisbury Plain in 1848. In the following year Dickens submitted his one and only contribution to Punch (an attack on the suburban water supply), but Lemon deemed it unsuitable. The end of Lemon's long friendship with Dickens came in 1858 when Lemon neglected to publish in Punch his friend's proclamation outlining the reasons for a separation from his wife, Catherine, who had been advised by Lemon. The two men were eventually reconciled in 1867. Including four folded facsimiles of the letters. This edition was printed in a limited quantity of five hundred and twenty-five, so this is a very rare edition. In a cloth binding with marbled boards. Externally, very smart, with just some minor shelfwear only. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright and clean, with virtually no spotting at all. Very Good Indeed. …