Letter from Wilkie Collins to the Chicago Relief Fund

Dublin Core

Title

Letter from Wilkie Collins to the Chicago Relief Fund

Creator

Wilkie Collins

Publisher

Manuscript

Date

1871

Caxton Club Member Contributions Item Type Metadata

Brief Notes on Book

Letterhead stationery

Essay

Letter from British author Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), dated 31 October 1871, to the Committee of the American Chicago Relief Fund. This letter was accompanied by his cheque for five pounds, “a trifling expression of my sympathy with the sufferers of the Fire of Chicago.” He wrote of his “sincere admiration of the heroic spirit with which your countrymen have met the disaster that has fallen on them.” Two years after he sent this heartfelt letter, Wilkie arrived in Chicago in January 1874 as part of a six-month speaking tour of America, admitting in a letter to a close female friend that he was less than impressed with the brash new city that had grown from the ashes of the Great Fire, calling Chicago “this city of magnificent warehouses.”

Contributor

Susan R. Hanes

Files

IMG_4019.jpg

Citation

Wilkie Collins, “Letter from Wilkie Collins to the Chicago Relief Fund,” Caxton Club Exhibits, accessed March 29, 2024, https://caxtonclub.omeka.net/items/show/7.