Wilkie Collins’s American Tour, 1873–4

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Susan R Hanes

The History of the Book

In the autumn of 1873, Wilkie Collins followed the example of fellow literary celebrities Dickens and Thackeray and began a six-month reading tour of America. Hanes places this tour within the American lyceum movement of the later nineteenth century. Through close examination of personal letters, news accounts and newspaper reviews, she builds a picture of the relationship between Collins and the American reading public.

Sample pages

• Wilkie Collins's American Tour: Introduction
• Wilkie Collins's American Tour: Performance Summary
• Wilkie Collins's American Tour: Index

Readership

Victorian Literature, History of Reading

Contents

Introduction
1 First Considerations of an American Tour
2 Underway to America
3 An Auspicious Welcome: New York City
4 The Tour Begins: Upstate New York
5 Readings and Responses: Philadelphia, Boston, and New York
6 The Second Swing: Baltimore and Washington
7 A Change of Managers: The Northeast
8 The ‘Double Difficulty’: Montreal, Toronto, and Buffalo
9 The Final Circuit: Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago
10 Arguments and Accolades: Return to New England
11 Winding Down: New York and Wallingford
Conclusion: Wilkie Collins and the American People

Reviews

'Replete with fascinating details, this is a very important addition to our understanding of Wilkie Collins.'
– The Year's Work in English Studies

Related titles

• Lives of Victorian Literary Figures, Part V: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins and William Thackeray by their contemporaries
• The Public Face of Wilkie Collins: The Collected Letters

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