[Charles Dickens (1812-1870)] – Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917)
An unpublished archive of letters to Charles Kent, c.1867-1897
Approximately 120 autograph letters signed to Charles Kent, Gad’s Hill and London, c.1867-1895

Various sizes, nearly all with envelopes preserving postmarks and stamps. Provenance: Sotheby's, 15 July 1999, lot 189.

An unpublished archive of letters from Georgina Hogarth, companion and confidante of Charles Dickens, to the English writer and newspaperman Charles Kent, including many recollections of Dickens.

Georgina's eldest sister, Catherine, married Charles Dickens in 1836; six years later Georgina went to live with them, making herself useful to her sister in running the household and coping with a busy social life that centred on Catherine's celebrated husband. Dickens came increasingly to value Georgina's companionship – she was one of the few people who could keep pace with him on his long daily walks – admired her intelligence and thought her 'one of the most amiable and affectionate of girls' (Letters of Charles Dickens, 7.172). She acted in the private theatricals Dickens organized in his home at Tavistock House and was his amanuensis when he was writing A Child's History of England for Household Words (1851–3). When the marriage broke down in 1858 she elected to remain with Dickens, outfacing scandal, and for the remainder of his life ran his home at Gad's Hill. Georgina was alone with Dickens at Gad's Hill on the evening of 8 June 1870 when he collapsed, and his last conscious words were to her. He appointed Georgina one of his executors and in his will described her as 'the best and truest friend man ever had'; he bequeathed to her £8,000, many personal items, and all his private papers. After the sale of Gad's Hill, Georgina returned to London and set up house with Dickens's daughter Mamie. In 1878 she began work on a selected edition of Dickens' letters: the first two volumes appeared in 1880, followed by a third in 1882 and a one-volume edition in 1893. From 1886 Georgina lived alone in a succession of London flats or with Dickens's most successful son, Henry, and his family (M. Slater, ‘Hogarth, Georgina (1827–1917), companion and confidante of Charles Dickens’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2012))

In the present letters, Georgina writes of her daily life, family and friends to the poet, biographer and journalist Charles Kent (1823-1902), a personal friend of Dickens who contributed to Household Words and All the Year Round under Dickens's editorship. In the earliest letters in the collection, written while Dickens was still alive, Georgina offers news of ‘dear Charles’, while later letters contain her reminiscences about their mutual friend.