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Lot #569
Charles Dickens

Dickens and plagiarism: the story said to have inspired Poe’s famous tale

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Estimate: $2000+
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Description

Dickens and plagiarism: the story said to have inspired Poe’s famous tale

ALS signed “CD,” one page, 4.5 x 7, March 8, 1858. Letter to journalist and editor Mark Lemon, in full: “I trust you are better? You were sadly missed, yesterday and the night before. Enclosed No. of popular periodical has been shewn to me. If the article I have marked be not yet paid for, please pay me for it—I wrote it, and it is taken from Master Humphrey’s Clock.” In very good to fine condition, with old mounting remnants on reverse. Dickens refers to a story that appeared in the London Journal in 1858 under the title ‘A Confession found in the Papers of a deceased Prussian Judge,’ which he believed to have been plagiarized from his own ‘A Confession found in a prison in the time of Charles the Second,’ published in his periodical Master Humphrey’s Clock in April 1840. Although neither Dickens’s piece nor the plagiarized version remain well known today, many scholars believe the original was the inspiration for one of the most famous short stories ever written—Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’ Pre-certified PSA/DNA.

Auction Info

  • Auction Title: Fine Autographs And Artifacts
  • Dates: #475 - Ended May 11, 2016





This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
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