WILKIE COLLINS - AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS

Last updated: March 2007

[ Wilkie Collins - an Illustrated Guide ]  [ Front Page ]

"If the public only knew that every writer worthy of the name is the severest critic of his own book before it ever gets into the hands of the reviewers, how surprised they would be!" (The Black Robe)

"The man who has worked in the full fervour of composition yesterday is the same man who sits in severe and merciless judgement to-day on what he has himself produced." (The Black Robe)

 

But still mistakes happen! This page is intended to provide corrections to The Guide where I come across any mistakes and incorporate new information as fresh details of Collins's life and works come to light.

Please e-mail fosco@wilkie-collins.info if you find any errors that I have overlooked.

All entries are listed alphabetically according to the original headwords.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

G.L - Graham Law

P.L. - Paul Lewis

 

 

AMERICA

Add: Collins's speech at the Lotos club on 27 September 1873 was published in Modern Eloquence: vol. I, After Dinner Speeches A-D (edited by T. B. Reed), Philadelphia 1900. [P.L.]

 

ARMADALE

Under Translations add: French, Paris 1867

 

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE COPYRIGHT QUESTION ADDRESSED TO AN AMERICAN FRIEND

Add: Published by WCS , November 1997.

 

CUFF, SERGEANT RICHARD

Cuff's rose-growing may have been based on Chief Inspector Frederick Williamson.

See Dickens's Favourite Detective, Dubberke, R., The Dickensian, Spring 1998, vol. 94, no. 444, pp 45-49.

 

DEDICATIONS

Blanch Roosevelt was an American singer and writer (1858-1898)

 

CHARLES DICKENS

Huffam to replace Huffham

 

'FIRST OFFICER'S CONFESSION, THE'

Add: published in Bow Bells Weekly Jan 6-13 1888 [G.L.]

 

'GHOST'S TOUCH, THE'

Add: Published in the Bolton Weekly Journal 26 Sept.-10 Oct. 1885. [G.L.]

  

HAUNTED HOTEL, THE

Under Translations add: French, Paris 1881, 1884, 1889

 

LEHMANN, FREDERICK

Correct dates to: 1826-1891

Add: Familiar Letters: N. L. to F. L. 1864-1867, selected and arranged by R. C. L., privately printed for the author, October 1892

 

MISS OR MRS?

Under Translations add: Russian, 1873; Polish, Lwow 1873

 

POE, EDGAR ALLAN

Collins detectives are unique to a particular story with the exception of Sergeant Bulmer who appears in both 'The Biter Bit' (1858) and No Name (1862)

 

POOR MISS FINCH

Under Translations add: French, Paris 1876, 1884

 

RAMBLES BEYOND RAILWAYS

For the US edition, change Sights-A-Foot to Sights a-foot

 

RADIO ADAPTATIONS (BBC)

Add:

Radio biography of Collins, September 1989

Little Novels. Five dramatized stories, 31 December 1997 - 28 January 1998

 

SEASIDE LIBRARY

Add: Antonina (1877 no 38); The Fallen Leaves (1879, no 583); The Moonstone (no 675). [P.L.]

 

TWO DESTINIES, THE

Under Translations add: French, Paris 1877, 1878, 1883

 

TOWNSHEND, REVD CHAUNCY HARE

Under references add: The Life and Times of Chauncy Hare Townshend: a Victorian Collector, edited by Peter Cave, Wisbech 1998.

 

WALKER, FREDERICK

Add as a second paragraph:

Walker had written to the wood engraver W. H. Hooper 'I am bent on doing all I can with a first attempt at what I consider might develop into a most important branch of art' and, in a later letter, added 'I propose trying my hand at the thing itself - a dashing attempt in black and white'. The original illustration to The Woman in White is on buff paper and laid to wood in charcoal, chalk, and black and white gouach. It is impressively life-size, the whole frame being about 9 feet by 5 feet, and gives an overall sepia effect. It has been called 'the first high-art poster the world ever knew' and 'the first work of any importance in the history of the pictorial poster.' The original is currently in the Tate Gallery (reference 2080). F. W. Waddy later used it as the background for a caricature of Collins. (See The Woman in White - Play)

 

WHICHER, JONATHON

Retired from the Metropolitan Police in 1864

'Dickens's Favourite Detective', Dubberke, R., The Dickensian, Spring 1998, vol.94, no. 444, pp 45-49.

 

'WHO KILLED ZEBEDEE?'

Add: Published in the Bolton Weekly Journal 24 Dec. 1880. [G.L.]

 

 'VICTIMS OF CIRCUMSTANCES DISCOVERED IN RECORDS OF OLD TRIALS'

Change 26 Sept. 1887 to 26 Feb. 1887. [P.L.]

 

 

In the end BIBLIOGRAPHY

Add:

Haste, S., Criminal Sentences: true crime in fiction and drama, London 1997

Topp, C. W., Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849-1905, ii (Ward & Lock), 1995; iii (Chatto & Windus; Chapman & Hall) 1997; iv (Frederick Warne, Sampson Low) 1999, Denver, Colo.

[ Front Page ]  [ Top of page ]