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Lot 95
DICKENS (CHARLES) Autograph letter signed ("Charles Dickens"), to Mrs Overs, promising to do what he can to help: Palazzo Peschiere, Genoa, 10 April 1845
25 March 2015, 11:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £4,000 inc. premium
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DICKENS (CHARLES)
Autograph letter signed ("Charles Dickens"), to Mrs Overs, promising to do what he can to help: "I really do not know what Mr Forster has in hand for you. I think he wrote me word, but I do not remember – and I deem it best not to keep you in a state of expectation, while I search out that fragment from an extensive correspondence. But if you will send him this letter, he will take it as an authority to pay to you what he may have"; and hoping that she succeeds in her undertaking, adding that the account of Miss Coutts's kindness is very gratifying to him ("...But it does not surprise me, for she is always kind and good to those to those who need her help..."); with autograph address panel overleaf, signed ("Charles Dickens"), postmarked; plus two carte-de-visite photographs, 1 page, address-panel dust-stained, minor wear at folds and dust-staining or light spotting, 4to, Palazzo Peschiere, Genoa, 10 April 1845
Footnotes
Mrs Overs was the widow of John Overs, a carpenter, who had published a collection of stories under the title Evenings by a Working Man, published by T.C. Newby and with a preface by Dickens. Overs died soon afterwards, and an appeal on behalf of his widow and children was launched by Newby, who in a letter to the Spectator stated: 'When the death of Overs was announced to me, I deeply deplored the absence of Mr. Charles Dickens from England, and I still regret that he is not at hand to advocate the cause of this distressed family; but although I cannot urge their claims so eloquently and forcibly as he would have done, yet I can, and do, as earnestly appeal to the benevolent that they will contribute liberally to enable the widow "to make some provision for her family"'.