Charles Dickens is pictured standing at a writing desk and holding a book. He looks just off center and a watch hangs from a chain on the vest he wears inside a large lapelled coat.

Charles Dickens, long an avid theatergoer and performer in amateur theatricals, gave his first public reading of A Christmas Carol in 1853. The charismatic author is said to have employed a different voice, a different style, for each of his characters, and he regularly appeared before audiences for the next 16 years, charming audiences and critics alike. In 1867–68, Dickens brought his reading tour to the United States. This holiday season, The New York Public Library is celebrating with a special installation featuring Dickens’s heavily annotated prompt copies, which he used in his performances of A Christmas Carol and other holiday books, including The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth, together with original photographs, first editions, and ephemera.

This display is organized by The New York Public Library and curated by Carolyn Vega, Curator of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature.

Listen: Neil Gaiman Reads 'A Christmas Carol'

In 2013, bestselling novelist and comic book creator Neil Gaiman came to NYPL to perform a special reading of A Christmas Carol, transformed into a Dickens lookalike by makeup artist Jeni Ahlfeld. Reading from one of the rare editions of the book housed at the Library, he delivered a performance worthy of Dickens—by all accounts a sensational performer of his own material. You can listen to the 2013 performance now—and join Neil Gaiman for a reprise performance of this celebrated story on December 18 and 19 at The Town Hall in NYC.

Listen: Neil Gaiman reads A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature

Interior of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, featuring several wooden desks and card catalog cupboards.

The Berg Collection is one of the world’s most celebrated research collections of English and American literature. It contains some 35,000 printed volumes, pamphlets, and broadsides, and 2,000 linear feet of literary archives and manuscripts, representing the work of more than 400 authors. The Berg’s most extensive manuscript holdings date from the period 1820–1970, particularly in collections related to modernism and the Bloomsbury Group; the Irish Literary Renaissance; the Beats; New York School poetry; and the countercultural poets of New York’s Lower East Side (1960–1980). 

Explore the Charles Dickens Collection of Papers in our Digital Collection. 

Flip through Charles Dickens's personal copy of A Christmas Carol, annotated with his own performance and reading notes.

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