DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). Autograph letter signed ('Charles Dickens') to Ada, Countess of Lovelace, Chester Place, 'Sunday Evening', n.d.

1½ pages, 179 x 109mm, bifolium. Envelope with autograph address and signature.

To the mathematician and pioneer of computing, Ada Lovelace. Dickens excuses himself at elaborate length for not being able to respond to an invitation: 'I have, most unfortunately, someone from the country dining here; and I fear I may not get rid of him in time to come round to you. I will be more than usually dull, however, and perhaps he'll go. – If I were alone, I should be really delighted to respond to your very kind note by putting myself in the Brougham and coming round, immediately'. Failing that, Dickens proposes to call on Lady Lovelace in Grosvenor Place on the following Tuesday ('Pray do not mind being out'), and concludes 'I write in the dark – legibly, I hope'.

Dickens was a friend of both Ada Lovelace and of her fellow computing pioneer Charles Babbage, and was sufficiently interested in their pursuits to have owned a copy of Lovelace's seminal Sketch of the analytical engine invented by Charles Babbage (1843).

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