Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens! As you know by now, if you've Googled anything today, it's the author's birthday—he was born 200 years ago, across the pond in England. But he has plenty of New York ties. Dickens first came here in 1842, spending a month in the city giving lectures, as well as raising support for copyright laws. On Valentine's Day that year "a Boz Ball was held in his honor at the Park Theater, with 3,000 guests. Among the neighborhoods he visited were Five Points, Wall Street, and The Bowery," he even peeked his into The Tombs! He took notes of his American travels, and wrote of New York at night:

The streets and shops are lighted now; and as the eye travels down the long thoroughfare, dotted with bright jets of gas, it is reminded of Oxford Street, or Piccadilly. Here and there a flight of broad stone cellar-steps appears, and a painted lamp directs you to the Bowling Saloon, or Ten-Pin alley.

He returned three years before his death, in 1867, at which time he was on an American reading tour (in New York he read at Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims and Steinway Hall). The New York Public Library is in possession of the copy of A Christmas Carol he used for readings, with notes in the margins about how the audience reacted at certain parts. So how can you pay homage to the man on the milestone birthday year?

dickenscatpaw.jpeg
Photo by Jen Carlson/Gothamist

  • Try to get someone at the New York Public Library to show you the author's letter opener, on which he had his beloved dead cat's paw mounted. Really! We saw it with our own eyes.
  • While there, you can also see his desk.
  • The Bronx Museum of the Arts and the British Council have teamed up to launch an art and writing contest inspired by a collection of short stories Dickens wrote in his twenties. More details here.
  • Author Deborah Hopkinson just released her book "A Boy Called Dickens," which is a fictionalized historical account of Charles Dickens' astonishing childhood in London.
  • Did you know there's a Dickens Fellowship in New York? They celebrated this past weekend.
  • During his 1842 visit, at a dinner hosted by Washington Irving, Dickens addressed the guests with a speech, which you can read here.
  • Take a listen to WNYC's "Birthday You Can't Bah Humbug"
  • And you can always wait til December, when the annual Dickens festival is held on Long Island.