Tuesday, February 7th, 2012, marks the 200th birthday of one the English Language's best loved authors, Charles Dickens. During a career which spanned nearly thirty-five years, Mr. Dickens wrote fourteen novels and dozens of short stories, essays, and plays. As a young boy, he worked long hours at a blacking warehouse in order to free his father from debtor's prison, but rose to become the one of the first authors to earn a living by his writing.
He drew on his childhood experience to create characters and stories that appealed to audiences of all social classes and published many of his novels in inexpensive monthly installments, so that even the poorest readers could afford to buy his books. This, combined with rising literacy rates among the lower classes, helped to make him one of the best-selling authors of his day.
Some of his best-known tales include A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and Oliver Twist. As evidence of his continued popularity, filmmakers still delight in adapting his novels for the screen.
To celebrate his 200th birthday, the Department of Archives & Special Collections invites you to drop by between 8am and 5pm on Tuesday to experience Mr. Dickens' novels in the same way as his earliest fans, by reading the monthly installments of Little Dorrit, still in their original blue paper covers, or turning the pages of the first edition of A Christmas Carol. (You may even catch a glimpse of your humble Special Collections Librarian modeling an 1860s-style outfit that was made for the Riverside Dickens Festival.) Although items from the rare book collections are normally available to researchers by appointment, this special occasion offers an opportunity for drop-in visitors to explore first editions of several of Dickens' books.
If you're still in a Dickensian mood, you can also check out a copy of one of Mr. Dickens' novels to read at home (hint: they're in call numbers PR4550 to PR4555), or watch one of the many movie adaptations in our Media Collection.
Images:
Left: Issues 1-3 of the first edition of Little Dorrit (London: 1855).
Right: Illustration from the first edition of David Copperfield (London: 1849).
Both images courtesy of LMU's Department of Archives & Special Collections. Photography by Melanie Hubbard.
This is so cool. Christine's dress is gorgeous! I felt like I was in a movie standing next to her. Thanks for the mini-exhibition. We have some amazing Dickens first editions. And thanks to Melanie for the photography.
Posted by: Kristine Brancolini | 02/07/2012 at 01:53 PM