The evidence has been staring scholars in the face for years, but no-one recognized it

PORTLAND, MAINE, UNITED STATES, November 28, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Independent researcher Stephen Sakellarios, from Portland, Maine, has discovered a never-before reported clue, hidden in plain sight, which shows that Charles Dickens inadvertently admitted having stolen “A Christmas Carol.” In the handwritten original of his iconic letter of Jan. 2, 1844, by which Dickens sends a complimentary copy to American professor Cornelius Felton, he theatrically recounts writing the “Carol” while walking the “black streets of London” many a night, as he “wept, and laughed, and wept again.” After joking about being a “Ruffian” and a “Rascal,” he then describes the novella’s surprising popularity: “And by every post, all manner of strangers write all manner of letters to him about their homes and hearths, and how this same Carol is read aloud there and kept on a very little shelf by itself. Indeed it is the greatest success as I am told, that this Ruffian and Rascal has ever achieved.” But this is not what he had originally written. In his handwritten letter, he first wrote that it was “the greatest success as I am told, that this Ruffian and Rascal has ever fastened on.” Dickens apparently thought better of admitting that, as a “ruffian and a rascal,” he had “fastened on” the story—which could be too readily interpreted to mean he had acquired it from another source—and decided it was prudent to scratch out the last two words, replacing them with “achieved.”

The redacted words “fastened on” can still be partially seen in the original letter, and have been logically extrapolated by Mr. Sakellarios via a process of elimination and using a specialized search engine. The only phrase in the English language which these words can reasonably be, given the number of characters, the position of characters with ascending and descending strokes, the opening letter “f,” fourth letter ‘t” and required letter “d” on the end (based on the past-tense context), is “fastened on.”

Mr. Sakellarios concludes, from this and other evidence, that Dickens accidentally revealed having obtained the manuscript for “A Christmas Carol” from some other source, thought better of it, and hastily replaced “fastened on” (being typical of his flamboyant writing style) with the colorless word, “achieved.”

Mr. Sakellarios also notes that the first time Dickens ever mentioned working on “A Christmas Carol” in private correspondence, by letter of Oct. 24, 1843, he euphemistically referred to it as a “little scheme.”

The new discovery is explained in a 12-minute video, available on YouTube.

It is also included in a carefully-researched paper by Mr. Sakellarios entitled “Evidence That ‘A Christmas Carol’ Was Originally Written by Mathew Franklin Whittier and Abby Poyen Whittier, Rather Than by Charles Dickens,” which can be accessed at the link provided or by searching online for the title.

(image in public domain per source, NY Public Library)

Stephen Sakellarios
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The evidence explained