Offprint of letter to the editor of The Times, headed 'MR. DICKENS AND MR. BENTLEY. | To the Editor of "The Times." '

Author: 
George Bentley (1828-1895), London bookseller; son of Richard Bentley (1794-1871) [Charles Dickens]
Publication details: 
GEORGE BENTLEY. | NEW BURLINGTON STREET, | Dec. 7, 1871.'
£100.00
SKU: 7584

8vo (21.5 x 14 cm), 4 pp. Unbound bifolium. Good, on lightly aged and foxed paper. The item is well-printed, paginated with two footnotes. The subject is laid out at the start: 'In the first volume of Mr. Dickens' Life, just published, I read an account of Mr. DICKENS' literary connexion with my father, which it is impossible for me to leave without remark. The biographer therein presents my father in a character which all who knew him would repudiate as belonging to him. | I should mention, that on my father's death, his papers coming into my possession, I made overtures through a mutual friend of Mr. FORSTER and myself, for the destruction of any letters that bore reference to a former disagreement between Mr. DICKENS and my father. [...] My application to Mr. FORSTER was without result, and Mr. FORSTER professed not to understand the meaning of the application itself.' Describes the 'succession of agreements' between Dickens and Bentley, 'every one of which was more in favour of Mr. DICKENS than the last - a conclusive proof at whose instigation they had been changed'. Scarce: the only copy on COPAC at the British Library. This copy from the Bentley family archive.