Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol
Dickens's original manuscript of A Christmas Carol, on view in Mr. Morgan's Library, serves as the centerpiece of the Morgan's holiday programs. Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in a six-week flurry of activity, beginning in October 1843 and ending in time for Christmas publication. He had the manuscript bound in red morocco as a gift for Thomas Mitton, his solicitor. It passed through several owners before Pierpont Morgan acquired it during the 1890s. The Morgan also holds the manuscripts of two of Dickens's later Christmas books, The Cricket on the Hearth and The Battle of Life, neither of which achieved the popularity of A Christmas Carol.
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street
New York, New York
