CHARLES DICKENS As I KNEW HIM. The Story of the Reading Tours in Great Britain and America (1866 - 1870).
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1885. 1st US edition, 2nd thousand (issued same year as the 1st. Cf. NCBEL III, 814). xiii, [1], 466, [2 (blank)] pp. Crown 8vo. 7-1/2" x 4-7/8". Original publisher's brown pebbled cloth binding stamped in black & gilt. Green floral patterened paper eps. Average wear & extremity rubs. Foxing. A VG copy. Item #52181
Per Claire Tomalin, author of Dickens: A Life (2011): "Gorge Dolby, a big man, full of energy, optimism and know-how, and talkative, with a stammer he bravely disregarded. He was thirty-five, just married, a theatre manager out of work and keen to take on the running of Dickens' next reading tour. He was sent by Chappell, the music publishers who were setting up the tour, and he won Dickens's confidence at once, and quickly became a friend... They laughed and joked together like boys, and enjoyed the small rituals of travel."
By the end of the tour Dickens became very close friends with Dolby. Michael Slater, the author of Charles Dickens (2009), has argued that the two men "quickly developed an excellent rapport".
As a result of the two men's closeness, this one of the better contemporaneous accounts of Dickens' Reading tours.
Price: $47.50