Oak Knoll

"This volume shows how much the skills of the bibliographer can contribute to our critical and biographical understanding of his subject.... Dickens enthusiasts have much cause to be grateful for the meticulousness with which Walter Smith has completed his work on Dickens on both sides of the Atlantic and added to our understanding of Dickens`s relationship with his American public."
-- Alan Shelston, The Dickensian (Spring 2013)

This significant work identifies the first and early American editions of Charles Dickens's novels and Sketches by Boz and traces their publishing history, including various impressions and sub-editions, from 1836 to 1870, the year of Dickens's death. Each of the entries provides detailed textual data and binding descriptions and is supplemented by photographic reproductions of title pages and bindings. The notes contain interesting comments about the novels, including their appearances in newspapers and journals, typographical points, and payments made to Dickens.

The bibliography was compiled from firsthand examinations of the books at major libraries and institutions throughout the country, in private collections, and in the possession of several rare book dealers. The content complements and stylistically conforms to the author's previous two-volume bibliography on Dickens's English editions. The book is an indispensable source of reference for libraries, collectors, booksellers, researchers, and students of Victorian literature since no other work of this magnitude on Dickens's American editions has ever been undertaken or published.