is what he is saying and, indeed, there is no doubt at all that the fearful
strain his transatlantic Readings tour imposed on his already damaged health
did much to hasten his early death a couple of years later.
Two things drove him on. One was that 'wind that bloweth all the world
beside, desire of Gold'. He calculated that he would clear a profit of
£15,500 on a series of eighty readings and, in the event, cleared £19,000
on seventy-six. He must have derived an intense secret delight from at
last making America pay for what he gave it because his bitterness about
the pirating of his books was, if anything, stonger in 1857 than it had
been in 1842: 'In America the occupation of my life for thirty years if, unless
it bears your imprint, utterly worthless and profitless to me', he wrote to the
publishers Ticknor and Fields. The second strong motivating force was the
anticipation of a reception by his American audiences so rapturous that it
would make even the tremendous demonstration of affection and delight he
had experienced at home seem quite mild. 'I am really andeavoring tooth and
nail to make my way personally to the American public', he told Fields.
Just as he had a quarter-century before, he began to savour in advance the
delights of a triumphant reception - only, this time, he and not his hosts
would be in control. If America wanted him again as a 'raree-show' it
could have him but on his terms and at his price: 'If he went at all, he would go
on his own account, making no compact with any one'.
His manager, Dolby, went out to prospect the situation in August 1867.
'The Americans are a people whom a fancy does not hold long', Dickens told
Forster and their passion to hear him read would probably yield to other,
political, passions in 1868, a Presidential election year, so it was
essential to undertake the tour no later than the winter of 1867/68.
He no longer, apparently, had any fears about the state of public feeling
towards himself in America. American Notes and Chuzzlewit 'had no more to do with
Mr. Dickens's calculations than if they had never been written', Dolby tells
us and, once Dickens had received fr0m his manager a satisfactory report
on the halls available and other arrangementshe bore down his best friends
191
strenuous opposition to the project and determined to go.
He derived some scornful amusement from Dolby's report that the Editor
of the New York Herald believed that if 'Dickens would first apologise
to the American public for the 'Notes' and 'Martin Chuzzlewit' he would
make a large amount of money'. Dickens was the last man to eat humble pie in
this fashion but he realised that he would have to make some sort of public
statement about his relations with, and attitude towards, America before
embarking on his tour. Already the New York newspapers were at their old
- 38 -
