Dealings with the Firm of Tauchnitz and Son: Charles Dickens, Bernhard Tauchnitz, and Anglo-German Contacts in the Mid-nineteenth Century

Charles Dickens was one of the most important authors for Bernhard Tauchnitz’s Collection of British Authors right from the beginning in 1841. He was among the first authors to be contacted for permission to reprint their works in 1843, and all of his works were subsequently published in the series at the same time as the originals. Over time, an extensive correspondence developed between Dickens and Tauchnitz, which we can partly reconstruct with the help of rediscovered letters by Dickens. This allows an insight into both their professional (e.g. regarding the payments made by Tauchnitz) and personal relationships. We can see a friendship developing, which led Dickens to send his eldest son Charley to Leipzig for two years in the mid-1850s. Overall, this relationship illustrates the close intercultural links between Germany and Britain in the mid-nineteenth century.