The Letters Of Charles Dickens. The Pilgrim Edition. Volume I, 1820-1839. Edited by Madeline House and Graham Storey. Oxford University Press, $20.20.
It should be stated at the outset that this is a friendly review. I first learned of the Pilgrim Edition of Dickens’ letters some fifteen years ago, when it was planned by that distinguished scholar, the-late Humphry House. At that time I accepted his invitation to join the advisory board; I know most of the present editors, with whom I am on cordial terms; I have supplied them with microfilm, photostats, and transcripts of unpublished letters that I had collected; and when I have been able to do so have answered appeals from them for factual information. Other than this, however, I have had nothing to do with the edition, neither in the planning nor in the enormous labors of collecting the materials on which it is based, and nothing to do with its format and its valuable apparatus of notes and appendices. But it seemed fair to provide readers with this information; anyone who feels that it limits my capacities for detachment can seek elsewhere for a critical judgment of how well the editors have performed their task.
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