IN the graceful but difficult art of letter-writing Charles Dickens has
proved himself as accomplished a master as he has of public speaking,
which the two or three specimens given in our Introduction, together with
the following extracts from his correspondence with two distinguished
friends, Washington Irving and Douglas Jerrold, will sufficiently show.
In the spring of 1841, some months before Mr. Dickens had decided upon
his first visit to the United States, Washington Irving, who was then
personally unknown to him, addressed him a letter, full of warm sympathy
and generous acknowledgment of his genius, and of the pleasure Dickens’s
writings had afforded him. A few extracts from Mr. Dickens’s reply are
given below.
In February, 1842, Mr. Dickens had the gratification of making the
personal acquaintance of his illustrious correspondent, who was induced
to overcome his objection to public speaking, and to take the chair at a
banquet given in Dickens’s honour by some of the citizens of New York.
Irving, however, entirely broke down in his speech, and could do little
more than propose the toast of the evening.
There were probably never two men of more congenial mind and common
sympathies than the author of the “Sketch Book,” and the author of
“Pickwick;” and it is pleasant to think that the chance of things should
have brought them together for a time in so unexpected a way.