The New York Public Library, Berg Collection of
English and American Literature
Dickens to an American friend, January 2, 1844 (page 1).
In this highly spirited letter to Cornelius Felton, dated January 2, 1844, Dickens writes of his holiday activities, of a forthcoming "family performance" (the birth of his fifth child, who arrived on January 15), and of his "Ghostly little book," A Christmas Carol. He informs his friend that a parcel awaits him at the Cunard wharf in Boston, and therein is to be found
"... a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens. Over which Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens wept, and laughed, and wept again, and excited himself in a most extraordinary manner in the composition; and thinking whereof, he walked about the black streets of London, fifteen and twenty miles, many a night when all the sober folks had gone to bed. He don't like America, I am told, but he has some friends there, as dear to him as any in England; so you may read it safely. Its success is most prodigious."