Travelling incognito, the author had visited Bowes Academy near Barnard Castle, County Durham, and encountered Shaw, who had already been convicted of negligence in 1823 after eight boys in his care went blind. Yet it is Shaw who has often been deemed the best candidate for Wackford, not simply because he shared the initials of the fictional character, but because Dickens actually met him during a trip to Yorkshire before writing the novel. “Mr Squeers and Dotheboys Hall were originally suggested to by such advertisements as Lord Robert Grosvenor has had the kindness to enclose,” the formal letter reads, adding that he had been in the immediate neighborhood of Mr Twycross “in the course of a little tour among the Yorkshire schools” he had made the previous winter.

In the letter, sent to campaigning politician Lord Robert Grosvenor in July 1838, Dickens thanks his friend for sending him the cutting of an incriminating newspaper advertisement for Winton Hallwhich promised the parents and guardians of young children “no vacations”, hinting that unwanted stepchildren or illegitimate offspring might be left with no questions asked, as long as payments were received. A handwritten letter written from Dickens details research he had carried out before inventing Squeers and clearly suggests that a Mr Twycross of Winton Hall in Westmoreland (now part of Cumbria) provided the prototype, and not William Shaw of Bowes Academy in Yorkshire, as academics have usually maintained. 501-502 (not affecting text) publisher's dark olive green cloth, front and back covers stamped in blind, recased with new yellow endpapers, spine slightly sunned, small closed tear at foot, extremities slightly bumped, othewise very good.But this Thursday a key piece of literary evidence is up for auction in New York. 620, small closed tears to list of plates professionally repaired at outer margin, very small loss to upper corner of pp. 42), some minor toning and a few spots to plates, portrait of Dickens spotted (as usual) with transfer onto title-page opposite, plate 37 ('The breaking up at Dotheby's Hall') bound out of sequence after p. Browne, frontispiece and first four illustrations in first state with imprint of Chapman and Hall (cf. 272) 8vo (234 x 154 mm, 12¾ x 6 in) half-title, engraved portrait of Dickens after Daniel Maclise, 39 engraved plates by H.K. First edition in book form ('latter' for 'letter', p.

Dickens nicholas nickleby