NEW YORK, NY.- An autograph letter signed by Charles Dickens, dating to the month in 1843 that he completed A Christmas Carol, is expected to fetch thousands of dollars at Swann Auction Galleries’ Autographs sale on November 8 in New York.

Dickens, who was just 31 years old, had already completed five of his major novels and undertaken a tour of America by the time he set about writing A Christmas Carol, which he completed in a frenzy of activity over a period of less than two months.

He steeped himself in the characters, relating to a friend how he composed the novella while walking “the black streets of London… many a night when all the sober folks had gone to bed”.

The 15 to 20 mile walks would start at the home he then shared in Devonshire Terrace with his wife Catherine and her sister Georgina Hogarth and, as this letter reveals, he was already considering the characters for his next novel, Martin Chuzzlewit, which he had started in the August of that year and published in 1844.

Addressed to Marion Ely, the letter confirms that Dickens will attend the birthday celebrations of Mary Talfourd, Marion’s cousin, but additional interest comes from his decision to adopt the voice of the dissolute nurse Mrs Gamp, a character from Martin Chuzzlewit, in the letter.

It reads:
Devonshire Terrace
Eighth November 1843
My Dear Miss Ely
We shall be delighted to participate in the festivities of Mary’s birthday – I was going to say Little Mary’s, but Heaven help us, she must be dreadfully big by this time!
Mrs Harris says only last evenin, as she never see a hand which giv her sech pleasure are yourn: not only on account of its bein sech a beautiful hand in itself, but because of its bein so familiar in the hold times as is gone and past fora hevermore amen.
She is as able as can be expected and I am always, Dear Ely,
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens

The letter comes to auction 175 years to the day since it was written.

The estimate is $4000 to $6000.