I OWE a deep debt of gratitude to the late Mr. Walter Dexter,
editor of The Dickensian and prime authority on every aspect
and detail of the life of Charles Dickens. He lent me books, he
showed me unpublished letters, and, more valuable than any other
form of help, discussed with me the problems that inevitably arose
in dealing with the novelist's relations with his family and his
contemporaries. All my questions were replied to unequivocally
and with patience. It is a source of great regret to me that he is
not alive to read the book he saw in typescript.

My warm thanks are due to Mr. William Maxwell of R. & R.
Clark, Ltd., Edinburgh, for lending me for four years a copy of
The Letters of Charles Dickens (edited by Walter Dexter for the
Nonesuch Press). It is a book I could neither buy nor borrow from
a library, and as my work is for the most part based on these
Letters it will be understood how vital and important was this
loan.

In these days of austerity it would be waste of paper and labour
to print the very long list of books I have read or consulted. I
must, however, mention the comprehensive bibliography included
in Charles Dickens, by William Dibelius ( 1916), as being ex-
tremely helpful, and add that I have made use of Mr. Ellis Gummer's
book, Dickens's Works in Germany ( 1940) with apprecia-
tion. Fresh light is thrown on Dickens's family life in Mr. and
Mrs. Dickens, by Walter Dexter ( 1935), and in Dickens and
Daughter (a record of conversations with Mrs. Perugini), by
Gladys Storey ( 1939).

For help over photographs I wish to thank Sir Eric Maclagan
and Mr. Carl Winter of the Victoria and Albert Museum; Mr. A.
Hind of the British Museum; Dr. Wittkower of the Warburg
Institute; and Lord Glenconner. I must also express my gratitude
to the Earl of Lytton for showing me over Knebworth, the cradle
of the Guild of Literature and Art. Special thanks go to my kind
friend Mr. C. F. Bell for reading through both typescript and
proofs, and to my son, John Pope-Hennessy, for constructive
criticism.

U. P.-H.

Ladbroke Grove,

1945

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