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
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.