Books

London: Chapman & Hall; Bradbury & Evans,, 1843-48. A merry Christmas to us all, my dears... God bless us every one! First editions, a finely bound complete set of Dickens's Christmas Books. Following the instant success of A Christmas Carol, Dickens produced a small festive book for the next few successive seasons, skipping Christmas 1847 to focus on completing his novel Dombey and Son, and concluding the project with The Haunted Man for Christmas 1848. The binder, Samuel Tout (1841-1902), was based in Soho from 1868 to 1879, thereafter in Whitechapel, where he briefly worked with William Coward. Tout was also an early member of the staff of Karslake's Hampstead Bindery, which opened in Charing Cross in 1898. Each volume includes the engraved bookplate from the Charles Dickens collection of B. George Ulizio (1889-1969) on the front pastedowns. The bulk of Ulizio's collection of British and American literature is now held at Kent State University. A Christmas Carol is in Smith's…

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a grumpy, greedy, and cold-hearted old miser who is transformed into a kind, generous man after visits by the ghost of his former business partner and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.