Heading to New York City this holiday season? Be sure to stop by The Morgan Library & Museum for a chance to see Charles Dickens' original manuscript of "A Christmas Carol," which will be on display from Nov. 20 through Jan. 13.

From The Morgan:

Every holiday season, the Morgan displays Charles Dickens’s original manuscript of A Christmas Carol in Pierpont Morgan’s historic Library. Dickens wrote his iconic tale in a six-week flurry of activity, beginning in October 1843 and ending in time for Christmas publication. He had the manuscript bound in red morocco as a gift for his solicitor, Thomas Mitton. The manuscript then passed through several owners before Pierpont Morgan acquired it in the 1890s. 

Find out more about what's happening at the Morgan this holiday season in their news release. Sign up to get the institution's emails in your inbox by visiting www.themorgan.org and clicking the "E-NEWS" button in the center of the page at the top.


-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl

An email from The Morgan Library & Museum has me wondering how quickly I can plan a trip to New York City.

News release from The Morgan:

February 7, 1812: Charles Dickens is born in Portsmouth, England…

…FAST-FORWARD TWO HUNDRED YEARS
On Tuesday, February 7, 2012, any Morgan Library & Museum visitor who mentions Dickens’s birthday will receive FREE ADMISSION in celebration of the great writer’s bicentennial year.

CHARLES DICKENS AT 200
The Morgan is currently showing Charles Dickens at 200, an exhibition that captures the art and life of a man whose literary and cultural legacy ranks among the giants of literature. On view are the original manuscripts of A Christmas Carol and Our Mutual Friend (a portion of which Dickens retrieved from the wreckage of a train crash), letters, books, photographs, and original illustrations. The exhibition is on view through February 12, 2012.

ON DICKENS’S BIRTHDAY
-On Tuesday, February 7, Morgan visitors who mention Charles Dickens’s birthday will receive complimentary admission.
-Free admission applies to every exhibition at the Morgan, so after viewing Charles Dickens at 200, visitors are welcome to explore the rest of the museum.
-No rain checks, please! (Dickens’s bicentennial comes but once, after all…).

Learn more about the exhibit Charles Dickens at 200, or view some of the exhibit online.

The Morgan is at 225 Madison Ave.:

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-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl

Oprah Winfrey's 65th book club selection is two works by Charles Dickens: "Great Expectations" and "A Tale of Two Cities."

From The Associated Press:

Winfrey said on Monday’s show that she has never read Dickens before.
“Normally, I only choose books that I’ve read, but I must shamefully admit to you all that I have never read Dickens,” she told her audience.
Oprah’s Book Club has nearly 2 million online members, according to Harpo Productions. Winfrey has said she will take the book club with her when she moves to her new cable station, the Oprah Winfrey Network, which launches Jan. 1.

I've never read along with an Oprah book club selection, nor have I been driven to pick up a book just because her sticker is on the cover. But her most recent pick might make me rethink that decision.

"Great Expectations" was the required summer reading for Honors English 9, and the 13-year-old me had a lot of trouble making it through the hundreds of pages. Some of my friends participated in book-burning parties after their projects were finished, but I just put the text back on my bookshelf and thought I might want to revisit it someday. I've never read "A Tale of Two Cities" -- though I considered its opening line as my epitaph for Jason's final audience participation blog entry. I'm not sure if I own this one; it could be something I picked up at Half Price Books and haven't gotten around to reading (I sure have a lot of those). Maybe Oprah's selection is the motivation I need to try to get through "Great Expectations" again and to read "A Tale of Two Cities," because I'm sure now many more people will be reading and talking about the stories I know little or nothing about. As someone with a master's degree in library and information science, and who considers herself to be a reader, maybe it's about time I return to Dickens.


-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com