Charles Dickens Autograph Letter Signed.

Autograph letter signed by great Victorian novelist Charles Dickens to his biographer. One page, dated Monday 7th October, 1867, on Gad's Hill Place stationery, and addressed to John Forster. Boldly signed by Dickens with his usual flourish. The letter reads in full, "I have been very much interested and gratified by that pleasant Passage from Mr. Bigelow's letter concerning me. As you say you are going to write to him, pray tell him as much, and I assure him that I shall hope to become his friend on the other side of the Atlantic. Your affectionate Charles Dickens." The recipient, John Forster (1812–1876), was a prominent Victorian literary critic and biographer best known for The Life of Charles Dickens, a foundational work in nineteenth-century literary biography. As a close friend and confidant of Dickens, Forster combined privileged access to personal papers with a documentary, fact-driven approach that helped establish biography as a serious scholarly genre rather than a purely commemorative form. Double matted and framed with an engraved portrait of Charles Dickens. In very good condition. The letter measures 4.5 inches by 7 inches. The entire piece measures 20 inches by 17.5 inches.