Dickens (Charles)

Autograph letter signed ('Charles Dickens') to Emma Pender, reading "Your kind invitation is very tempting both to me and my daughter. But (besides that we have visitors coming to us this month and next), I cannot this autumn lengthen the tether that holds me within thirty miles of London. Present and prospective occupations oblige me to be here. My daughter joins with me in kind regards and cordial thanks for your remembrance", one page, integral blank, mid-horizontal folding mark, 8vo, Gad's Hill Place, 19 August 1867; with original mailing envelope addressed and signed by Dickens, top right corner missing as the stamp was clipped out.

***The letter is recorded in The Charles Dickens Letters Project. The recipient was Emma Pender, second wife of John Pender (1816-1896), Scottish textile merchant in Manchester, submarine communications cable pioneer and politician who arranged work experience positions for Dicken's son Alfred in the textile trade. The visitors Dickens is referring to are: The novelist Charles Reade (1814-1884), Henry Chorley (1808-1872) and George Dolby (d. 1900). Dickens spent August and September considering whether he would go on a reading tour to the United States.