The harsh conditions of Dickens’ childhood laid out in this Jackdaw will add immeasurably to your students understanding of his novels and his lifelong activity as a social reformer. The hands-on documents chronicle Dickens’ rise from poverty to office boy, novelist, actor, journalist and worldwide acclaim. When students touch and read these replicas of historical documents ¾ pages from The Pickwick Papers, a newspaper report on “The Great Boz Ball,” a plan for David Copperfield ¾ they will find themselves carried back to Dickens’ domain. Historian: Ivor Brown. The contents of this Jackdaw feature:

• Charles Dickens
• The Man with a Pen
• Crime and Punishment
• Hard Times
• In America
• The Actor

• Note to A. Thomas Esq., written when Dickens was at Wellington House Academy.
• The Pickwick Papers, pages from the original part publication with illustrations by Robert Seymour.
• Mr. Shaw’s business card, advertising the original of Dotheboys Hall.
• The Great Boz Ball, as reported in the New York press, 1842.
• Portrait sketch of Charles Dickens by George Cruikshank.
• A letter from Dickens to his publishers, Bradbury & Evans.
• Letter on capital punishment for publication in the Daily News.
• The chapter plan for an issue of David Copperfield.
• Page from the manuscript of David Copperfield.
• Pages from Household Words, with proof corrections to HardTimes.
• Program for Every Man in His Humour with a sketch of Dickens in his role by David Maclise.
• Dickens’ design for the lectern made for his readings.
• A ticket for a reading by Charles Dickens.
• A letter from Dickens to his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth.