The Charles Dickens Letters Project
To SUSAN HOOD,1 4 OCTOBER 1867
Replaces extract in Pilgrim Letters 4, p. 461, where editors erroneously date the extract [?Aug-Dec 1845], and mistakenly identify Mrs Hood as the widow of the poet and author Thomas Hood (1799-1845).
Text from facsimile in The Chatham Bookseller online catalogue, Jan 2022.
Address: Mrs Hood | 2 Russell Terrace | Holland Road | Brixton | S.
Date: PM 5 Oct 1867. Letter and envelope tipped into a bound volume of CD's contributions to Bentley's Miscellany. CD had erroneously written "Fourth December", but meant 4 October (the day before the PM on the envelope). 4 Dec 1867 was a Wednesday — not a Friday; CD was in Boston on 4 Dec. 1867.
GAD'S HILL PLACE,
HIGHAM, BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
Friday Fourth December2 1867
Dear Madam
I hope you will not think me insensible to your kind feeling towards me, when I beg to decline your proffered Dedication. I am bound to assure you that I cannot honorably encourage you in the mistaken idea that such an association of my name "with any work, would be a guarantee of success."
Faithfully Yours
CHARLES DICKENS
Mrs Hood