List of illustrations -- Preface -- Dickens's first visit to America and its fallout. American notes: the book that inflamed two nations. South Carolina contemplates banning American notes ; The American chapters of Martin Chuzzlewit: the culmination of Dickens's quarrel with the American press ; The American press assigns Dickens to Queen's Bench Prison ; Did John Forster write the notorious Foreign quarterly article on "American poetry"? ; The authorship of the Foreign quarterly article on "American poetry" and Poe's "Two long interviews" with Dickens ; Charles Dickens makes Ticknor & Fields his authorized American publisher -- Dickens's second visit to America and its fallout. Kate Field reports on Dickens's performances in America ; Dickens and his Chicago relatives ; Frederick Dickens: from courtship to courtroom ; Dickens on America: a twenty-five year record -- After Dickens's death. Gail Hamilton on Dickens's alleged ménage à trois ; Laurence Hutton's edition of Letters of Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins -- Index.