{"id":299576,"date":"2026-10-04T11:28:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T11:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/299576\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T11:28:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T11:28:26","slug":"charles-dickens-great-great-grandson-visits-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/299576\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Dickens’ great-great grandson visits Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ud83d\udc8c Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you ask Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0if he\u2019s related to the famous novelist, here is his answer: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A great-great grandson of the author of\u00a0\u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cDavid Copperfield,\u201d Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0made his first visit to Philadelphia recently, and saw first-hand items related to his ancestor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised by the connections. I knew to a degree the connections, but to be taken around museums and The Free Library and to be shown some of the extraordinary collections face to face, with the handwritten (pages) of\u00a0\u201cThe Pickwick Papers,\u201d\u00a0and a first edition of\u00a0A\u00a0Christmas Carol\u00a0has been incredible,\u201d said Ian\u00a0Dickens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was in Philadelphia to help the Philadelphia Pickwick Club<\/a> celebrate its 45 anniversary. (\u201cThe Pickwick Papers\u201d\u00a0follows Samuel Pickwick and members of\u00a0The Pickwick Club\u00a0as they travel across England and record their experiences.\u00a0The novel\u2019s popularity inspired readers to create real-life Pickwick clubs.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0started professionally as a photographer, \u201cprimarily motor sports photography, and I stayed in the photographic industry and joined Olympus cameras, and was there for 21 years as their marketing director.\u201d In 2000, he quit, and took part in traveling around the world in a sailboat race of 6,000 miles that took 11 months. \u201cI was 45, classic halftime moment (or mid-life crisis, as we say in the United States),\u201d according to Ian\u00a0Dickens.<\/p>\n

Charles\u00a0Dickens\u00a0visited Philadelphia in March 1842 and January 1868. He wanted to see Eastern State Penitentiary<\/a>, which opened in 1829. The prison\u2019s approach was to keep prisoners isolated; this would provide them time to think about their crime, and offer penitence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jim Baraldi, president of the Philadelphia Pickwick Club, said, \u201cQuite the opposite happened\u201d at the prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was created by the Quakers with the initial intent that inmates wouldn\u2019t interact with other prisoners,\u201d said Baraldi. \u201cThey\u2019d have an opportunity to sit alone and reflect on all the bad things they did, and then they become good people. Well, it didn\u2019t go that way, and, (Dickens) understood that was the initial intent. But when he got here, (he was) absolutely horrified to see these (prisoners) sitting alone in these cells, and he said the look on their faces was as if they\u2019d seen a ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scholars believe this experience led to his writing\u00a0\u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d in which Ebenezer Scrooge is \u201cisolated\u201d from humanity, and is doomed to suffer; when he rejoins humanity, he is saved.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd from that, supposedly, (is) where the story comes from,\u201d said Baraldi.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wrote it like in six weeks because he was hurting for money,\u201d said Baraldi, \u201cBut he was so confident in his own ability that he actually self-published it, spent a fortune (doing) it, and even though it sold very well, it barely covered the cost of the printing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Ian Dickens, a great-great grandson of Charles Dickens, stands by the statue of the author of\u00a0\u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d that\u2019s in Clark Park in West Philadelphia recently. (Jon Caroulis\/for Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

According to Baraldi, the Pickwick Club of Philadelphia took Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0on a \u201cCultural Walk,\u201d a Stumble (Pub Crawl), a gala at the Union League, and a brunch at Cavanaugh\u2019s Headhouse<\/a> (formerly The\u00a0Dickens\u00a0Inn) before heading to Clark Park. He added that the club has been having their meetings at the same location, which has been The\u00a0Dickens\u00a0Inn, then became The Dark Horse, and now is Cavanaugh\u2019s Head House.<\/p>\n

In addition to the penitentiary, Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0visited the Free Library of Philadelphia<\/a> and the Rosenbach Museum<\/a>, which have\u00a0Dickens\u00a0artifacts in their collections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Rosenbach, in addition to the handwritten pages of\u00a0\u201cThe Pickwick Papers\u201d\u00a0(very few have survived), Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0saw\u00a0a photo of Charles\u00a0Dickens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the back of it \u201cthere was his signature, with big flourish and underlines, and very helpfully he dated it, the date is the eighth of June, 1870. By the end of that day, after writing more pages of \u2018The Mystery of Edwin Drood\u2019 he came into his house at Gads Hill in Kent and collapsed. He died the following day after suffering a severe stroke,\u201d said Ian\u00a0Dickens.<\/p>\n

Also at the Rosenbach are the earliest surviving manuscript of\u00a0Dickens, a page from a burlesque entitled\u00a0O\u2019Thello, which he wrote when he was 20 for his family to perform at home; a first edition of\u00a0\u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d inscribed by\u00a0Dickens\u00a0to his friend Dr. John Elliotson, who taught\u00a0Dickens\u00a0hypnotism (Dickens was a well-practiced hypnotist); and a detailed recipe in\u00a0Dickens\u2019 hand on how to make his two punches, Innocence<\/a> and Moonbeams<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While visiting the Philadelphia Free Library, Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0saw Charles\u00a0Dickens items such as a letter about Eastern State Penitentiary;\u00a0Dickens\u2019 notebooks done in shorthand;\u00a0(the library has a portion of\u00a0\u201cThe Pickwick Papers\u201d\u00a0manuscript, separate from the Rosenbach\u2019s item; it was given to the Rare Book Department by a group of anonymous donors in 1977). Other\u00a0Dickens\u00a0items include a letter opener shaped like a bean pod that was given to\u00a0Dickens\u00a0by his sister-in-law Mary Hogarth,\u00a0Dickens\u2019 inkwell, his silver and mica travel lamp and his green glass letter scale.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the manuscript of\u00a0\u201cThe Life of Our Lord,\u201d a book about the life of Jesus he wrote for his children, and\u00a0Grip,\u00a0Dickens\u2019 pet raven, whom\u00a0Dickens\u00a0had stuffed and preserved when it died.\u00a0Dickens\u00a0included Grip in his novel,\u00a0\u201cBarnaby Rudge,\u201d and this talking raven was an inspiration for Edgar Alan Poe (who met\u00a0Dickens\u00a0on his first trip to Philadelphia) for his poem\u00a0\u201cThe Raven.\u201d\u00a0Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0also saw the original serial issues of\u00a0\u201cThe Pickwick Papers, in the copy\u00a0Dickens\u00a0personally inscribed to his sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth, who died during the publication of the serial.<\/p>\n

Free Library has a room that was the personal library of William McIntire Elkins<\/a>, a major collector of\u00a0Dickens. According to the Free Library\u2019s Rare Book staff, \u201cAfter Elkins died in 1947, his family gave his collections to the Free Library of Philadelphia. His family also suggested that the library room itself be given to the Library. The 62-foot-long paneled room, along with its furnishings, was removed from the Elkins family home, Briar Hill, in Whitemarsh, and physically moved to the Parkway Central Library, where it was reconstructed on the third floor. The room includes a writing desk owned and used by Charles\u00a0Dickens\u00a0for 30 plus years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of Ian\u00a0Dickens\u2019 final visits was to Clark Park<\/a>, which has one of three known statues of the writer (Philadelphia\u2019s is the oldest, sculpted in 1890;\u00a0\u00a0A second shortly followed in Centennial Park, Sydney Australia; the third is in Portsmouth, United Kingdom, the city of\u00a0Dickens\u2019 birth and was unveiled in 2014.)\u00a0\u00a0Placed atop a granite base, the Charles\u00a0Dickens\u00a0statue is 6-foot-8, while he\u2019s sitting in a chair and looking at Little Nell, a character from\u00a0\u201cThe Old Curiosity Shop,\u201d\u00a0who is standing and is 5-foot-4.<\/p>\n

Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0has seen photographs of it, but seeing it in person was an experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it, I love the scale, I love the way he\u2019s looking at such a pretty, adoring face,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The theme of several\u00a0Dickens\u00a0books deal with children who are orphans (\u201cOliver Twist\u201d), living in wretched conditions\u00a0(\u201cBleak House\u201d), or dying young (The Old Curiosity Shop).\u00a0\u00a0During his lifetime people didn\u2019t know that his childhood mirrored what he wrote.<\/p>\n

When he was 12,\u00a0Dickens\u2019 father was sent to debtor\u2019s prison. His mother and several siblings accompanied him, leaving\u00a0Dickens\u00a0alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when I go to schools, I talk to nine and 10 year-olds, they\u2019re the same age as him when he\u2019s having to fend for himself,\u201d said Ian\u00a0Dickens. He tells students if you take the initials of David Copperfield, \u201cDC\u201d, and reverse them, you get \u201cCD\u201d, the author\u2019s initials. \u201cSo there\u2019s a clue that it\u2019s autobiographical,\u201d he says. (\u201cDavid Copperfield\u201d\u00a0is Ian\u00a0Dickens\u2019 favorite of Charles\u00a0Dickens\u00a0books; it was also Charles\u00a0DIckens\u00a0favorite among his works.)<\/p>\n

Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0was joined by his cousin Rowland\u00a0Dickens, who lives in Mendham Township, New Jersey, about 80 miles northeast of Philadelphia. The pair have stayed in touch, but hadn\u2019t seen each other in 25 years. Rowland\u00a0Dickens\u00a0came to the United States in 1979 \u201cfor one year,\u201d but wound up staying, working in the financial industry. People often ask him if he\u2019s related to the author, and they\u2019re shocked when he confirms it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I don\u2019t believe it myself,\u201d he says about being a descendant of one of the world\u2019s most famous authors.<\/p>\n

Rowland\u00a0Dickens\u2019 favorite novel by his great-great grandfather is\u00a0\u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d which he describes as \u201cjust timeless.\u201d On Christmas Eves, he watched film versions with his three sons while they were growing up. Now that they\u2019re adults, on Christmas Eve they play \u201ca drinking game\u201d while watching the 1992\u00a0\u201cMuppet Christmas Carol,\u201d with Michael Caine as Scrooge, Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit and Miss Piggy as Mrs. Cratchit<\/p>\n

To join The Pickwick Club of Philadelphia, a person must attend as a guest of a member for at least two meetings. An interview with the board occurs with a person who has two member sponsors. Once the board approves, the individual is introduced as the newest member at the next general membership meeting. A Pickwick sobriquet is assigned to the new member prior to their introductory meeting. Baraldi said there are 60 members of the Philadelphia club. Ian\u00a0Dickens is president of the London Pickwick Club, and he said there are other clubs around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are great-great-great grandsons of Charles\u00a0Dickens, the children and grandchildren of Ian and Rowland, so the lineage will continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each boy in the family is given the middle name of Charles.<\/p>\n

What Ian\u00a0Dickens\u00a0finds interesting is \u201cpeople often say, do you all write? As a family? No reason why we should, but it\u2019s what I call a communications gene, so marketing is a communication: you take people on a journey, you tell them something they don\u2019t know about and leave them in a better place, which is what writing is,\u201d he said. \u201cMy son is a musician, music is a journey. My daughter worked in fashion, clothes, exactly the same (in communication), so it\u2019s very interesting . My brother is an actor; a cousin who\u2019s been an actor and successful in films in\u00a0\u2018Game of Thrones,\u2019 and so it\u2019s all creative professions,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udc8c Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. If you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[123491,4877,123492,94,123493,69,71,70,123494],"class_list":["post-299576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-a-christmas-carol","tag-arts","tag-charles-dickens","tag-history","tag-ian-dickens","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-pickwick-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}