My Father as I Recall Him

Transcribed from the Roxburghe Press edition by David Price, ccx074@pglaf.org
The pages of this little book were in type and about to be sent for correction to my sister—who had been for some months in very delicate health—when she suddenly became still more gravely ill. The hand which had traced the words of love and veneration dedicated to our father’s memory grew too feeble to hold a pen, and before the proofs of her little volume could be submitted to her for revision, my dear sister died.
K. P.
by MAMIE DICKENS.
the ROXBURGHE PRESS , fifteen, victoria street, westminster.
this work, and all the publications of the roxburghe press, are supplied to the trade by messrs. simpkin, marshall, hamilton, kent & company, limited, and can be obtained through any bookseller.
Seeing “Gad’s Hill” as a child.—His domestic side and home-love.—His love of children.—His neatness and punctuality.—At the table, and as host.—The original of “Little Nell.”
If, in these pages, written in remembrance of my father, I should tell you my dear friends, nothing new of him, I can, at least, promise you that what I shall tell will be told faithfully, if simply, and perhaps there may be some things not familiar to you.
A great many writers have taken it upon themselves to write lives of my father, to tell anecdotes of him, and to print all manner of things about him. Of all these published books I have read but one, the only genuine “Life” thus far written of him, the one sanctioned by my father himself,
namely: “The Life of Charles Dickens,” by John Forster.
But in what I write about my father I shall depend chiefly upon my own memory of him, for I wish no other or dearer remembrance. My love for my father has never been touched or approached by any other love. I hold him in my heart of hearts as a man apart from all other men, as one apart from all other beings.