Existing comment:
Sold-Out Shows
Dickens began giving public readings in 1853. In 187, he traveled to Dublin -- as seen in this letter to his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth -- where he read A Christmas Carol and other works to packed houses. At the final reading in Dublin, there were close to 4,000 people in the audience, an a further 2,000 people were refused admission. Later in the year, Dickens embarked on a grand reading tour of the United States, where he was similarly mobbed. He recorded is readings -- some 17 between Boston and New York in December alone -- in this small pocket diary. The tickets, seen here, were presumably kept as souvenirs. |