]]> From the Black Rocks first appeared in May 1862 in Dickens’s All the Year Round. The 1950 ‘new’ edition on display was published by A. H. Reed, who was curious as to who wrote it. The story concerns ‘Henry’, a clergyman living among Ngapuhi and his subsequent shipwreck on an island. Thinking that it was the tale was based on a true story, Reed enquired at the Church Missionary Societies in New Zealand and London as to who ‘Henry’ was. He had no success. However, Ian Church, a local Dunedin historian, has his own theory, suggesting that John White, interpreter and author of The Ancient History of the Maori (1887-1890), wrote the story. Arriving from Scotland in 1834, White (1826-1891) settled near his uncle, a Wesleyan missionary, in the Hokianga. White apparently admired Dickens very much and called his Auckland home ‘Dingley Dell’. Is the question of who was the author still open?

[From the Black Rocks, On Friday,  page 232 and 233 from All the Year Round May 17, 1862. Conducted by Charles Dickens.]

]]>
Charles Dickens (Conductor)]]>
]]> From the Black Rocks first appeared in May 1862 in Dickens’s All the Year Round. The 1950 ‘new’ edition on display was published by A. H. Reed, who was curious as to who wrote it. The story concerns ‘Henry’, a clergyman living among Ngapuhi and his subsequent shipwreck on an island. Thinking that the tale was based on a true story, Reed enquired at the Church Missionary Societies in New Zealand and London as to who ‘Henry’ was. He had no success. However, Ian Church, a local Dunedin historian, has his own theory, suggesting that John White, interpreter and author of The Ancient History of the Maori (1887-1890), wrote the story. Arriving from Scotland in 1834, White (1826-1891) settled near his uncle, a Wesleyan missionary, in the Hokianga. White apparently admired Dickens very much and called his Auckland home ‘Dingley Dell’. Is the question of who was the author still open?

[Title page and frontispiece in From The Black Rocks, On Friday, edited (or written?) by Charles Dickens, with an introduction by A. H. Reed.]

]]>
Edited by Charles Dickens [?]]]>

]]>
In 1858, Catherine and Charles Dickens legally separated. The scandal surrounding the event affected his relationship with Bradbury and Evans, who refused to publish his explanation of his separation in Punch. Annoyed, Dickens turned back to Chapman and Hall and began All The Year Round, a new weekly again priced at twopence. The first issue of 30 April 1859 carried his serialized novels A Tale of Two Cities (seen here) and Great Expectations. In later issues, works by Wilkie Collins, Bulwer Lytton, and Elizabeth Gaskell featured.

[Title page from Charles Dickens's All the Year Round, Volume 1, from April 30 to October 22 1859. Numbers 1 to 26.]

]]>
Charles Dickens]]>