Pic Nic Papers: By Various Hands. Edited by Charles Dickens, Esq. Author of "The Pickwick Papers," "Nicholas Nickleby," &c. With Illustrations by George Cruikshank, Phiz, &c.

London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, 1841. For the Benefit of John Macrone's Widow

[DICKENS, Charles]. The Pic Nic Papers. By Various Hands. Edited by Charles Dickens, Esq. Author of ‘The Pickwick Papers," "Nicholas Nickleby," &c. With Illustrations by George Cruikshank, Phiz, &c. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, 1841.

First edition, second state, with Palmer imprint on [ii] and "young publisher" corrected on [iii] in Volume I. Three twelvemo volumes. [i-iii]iv[v]vi[vii-viii], [1]2-323[324]; [i-iv], [1]2-298, [i-viii, ads]; [i-iv], [1-3]4-378, [i-iv, ads]. Fourteen engraved plates, including two by Cruikshank, six by Phiz, and six by R.J. Hammerton.

Original green fine-diaper cloth stamped in blind on covers and spine and lettered in gilt on spine. Original pale yellow endpapers. Spines sunned, corners bumped. Previous owner's ink inscription on front-free endpapers of Vol. II. and III. Occasional slight offsetting and periodic edge-browning or foxing to plates. Overall, a very good copy.

"John Macrone was the publisher of Dickens' first book, and when he died he left a widow and several children in comparatively destitute circumstances. As a business man he drove, what to the young author at that time, was a rather hard bargain over a copyright. But the appeal made on behalf of a needy family Dickens could not resist. He was in the middle of ‘Master Humphrey's Clock,' and regardless of this he undertook the management of ‘The Picnic Papers,' the proceeds of which were to alleviate hardships. He wrote the Introduction, rewrote his unacted farce ‘The Lamplighter,' altering the name to ‘The Lamplighter's Story,' edited the balance of the book, excepting the third volume, and was enabled to place in the hands of the widow the sum of £300" (Eckel).

Gimbel B109. Cohn 236. Eckel.

HBS 66172.

$650.