The Charles Dickens Letters Project

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Individual letter:

Dickens, Charles. To [addressee], [date of letter]. Charles Dickens Letters Project, ed. Leon Litvack, Emily Bell, Lydia Craig and Jeremy Parrott (London: Dickens Fellowship). [URL of individual letter], [date of access].

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Charles Dickens Letters Project, ed. Leon Litvack, Emily Bell, Lydia Craig and Jeremy Parrott (London: Dickens Fellowship), DickensLetters.com.

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1841-1850

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publishing

To MARY HOWITT,1 [1844-8]

Envelope only. Text from facsimile on eBay, Nov 2018.

Address: Mrs Howitt | Lower Clapton2

Date: one-penny embossed stamp, in use 1840s; "T.P. Fleet St E.C."3 strike on front of envelope. The Howitts left Lower Clapton in 1848, for Upper Avenue Road, Regents Park.

1. Anna Mary Howitt, née Botham (1799-1888; Dictionary of National Biography), miscellaneous writer and translator; contributed to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, Monthly Repository, People's Journal, Ladies' Companion, Leisure Hour, Good Words, and other periodicals. Translated some of Hans Christian Andersen's works, and the novels of Fredrika Bremer. Established the short-lived Howitt's Journal (1847-8). She and her husband William Howitt (1792-1876; Dictionary of National Biography) became acquainted with CD in the mid-1840s and occasionally met him at social gatherings; they became contributors to Household Words at CD's invitation in 1850.
2. The Howitts lived at 56 The Elms, Lower Clapton.
3. "T.P.", meaning "Taxe Perçue", refers to an auxiliary marking, by handstamp, to indicate that postage was prepaid.