Thomas Chatterton Manuscript Project
Key People
James Dodsley
1724 - 1797
Bookseller & Publisher
Chatterton's Two Letters to James Dodsley
(Chatterton's Search for a Patron is Underway)
Chatterton is 16 years old and still an Apprentice at Lambert's
Thomas Chatterton
No image of James Dodsley.
Here's one of his brother -
A family likeness perhaps.
Before he wrote to Walpole, Chatterton first wrote to James Dodsley, the Bookseller and Publisher. It was only after he failed to hook Dodsley with a sample of his work, that he moved his search for a Patron to Horace Walpole.
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It seems that Chatterton wrote only these two letters to Dodsley. Unfortunately, Dodsley's replies (if he did reply), are missing. It is likely that Chatterton didn't take rejection very well, it is also likely that he destroyed any negative replies he did get. If Dodsley did reply, I wonder if he recommended that Chatterton approach Walpole?
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Provenance of the two letters:
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Found at the clearing out of Dodsley's Counting House (Meyerstein, p.251n)
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John Hugh Smyth Pigott. Sold at Auction 1849 (the same auction sold the Fust Ms.).
Chatterton's First Letter to Dodsley
21st Dec, 1768
The letter above is the first printing from: Britton's Redcliffe Church 1813 : View
Location of Chatterton's Original Handwritten Manuscript
Location of Chatterton's original handwritten manuscript :
Houghton Hyde Room, Harvard University.
(Donald F. Hyde Collection)
We await the courtesy of a photograph of the original MS.
Chatterton's Second Letter to Dodsley
15th February, 1769
The First Printing above is from: Britton's Redcliffe Church 1813 : View
The 'specimen of the Tragedy' Chatterton included in the letter, were the ten lines shown below from, Ó”lla [Aella]. The complete work can be read here : View
Location of Chatterton's Original Handwritten Manuscript
Location of Manuscript: The rather grand
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
We await the courtesy of a photograph of the original MS.