Recollections of Writers
Charles Dickens to Mary Cowden Clarke, 28 December 1852
Tavistock House, Tuesday Evening, 28th Dec., 1852.
My dear Mrs. Clarke,—This comes from your
ancient (and venerable) manager, in solemn state, to decide the wager.
The Host’s story is by Edmund
Ollier—an excellent and true young poet, as I think.
You will see a turning-point in the two green leaves this next
month, which I hope will not cause you to think less pleasantly and kindly of them.
And so no more at present from yours
Always very faithfully,
Mary Victoria Cowden Clarke [née Novello] (1809-1898)
The daughter of the musician Vincent Novello, she married Charles Cowden Clarke in 1828
and wrote works on Shakespeare, including
The Complete Concordance to
Shakespeare (1845).
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
English novelist, author of
David Copperfield and
Great Expectations.
Edmund Ollier (1826-1886)
Historian and miscellaneous writer, son of the publisher Charles Ollier; he wrote
Our British Portrait Painters (1873) and several modern
histories.
