Editing Charles Dickens (section)

===Second visit to the United States===
[[File:Buying tickets for a Charles Dickens reading at Steinway Hall, New York, New York, 1867.jpg|thumb|left|Crowd of spectators buying tickets for a Dickens reading at [[Steinway Hall]], New York City, in 1867]]
While he contemplated a second visit to the United States, the outbreak of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] in America in 1861 delayed his plans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Waller |first=John O. |date=1960 |title=Charles Dickens and the American Civil War |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4173318 |journal=Studies in Philology |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=535–548 |jstor=4173318 |issn=0039-3738}}</ref> On 9 November 1867, over two years after the war, Dickens set sail from [[Liverpool]] for his second American reading tour. Landing in [[Boston]], he devoted the rest of the month to a round of dinners with such notables as [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] and his American publisher, [[James T. Fields]]. In early December, the readings began. He performed 76 readings, netting £19,000, from December 1867 to April 1868.<ref name="Hobsbaum1998">{{harvnb|Hobsbaum|1998|p=271}}.</ref> Dickens shuttled between Boston and New York, where he gave 22 readings at [[Steinway Hall]]. Although he had started to suffer from what he called the "true American [[catarrh]]", he kept to a schedule that would have challenged a much younger man, even managing to squeeze in some sleighing in [[Central Park]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Forster |first=John |title=The Life of Charles Dickens: 1852 – 1870, Volume 3 |date=1874 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |page=363}}</ref>

During his travels, he saw a change in the people and the circumstances of America. His final appearance was at a banquet the American Press held in his honour at [[Delmonico's Restaurant|Delmonico's]] on 18 April, when he promised never to denounce America again. By the end of the tour Dickens could hardly manage solid food, subsisting on champagne and eggs beaten in sherry. On 23 April he boarded the [[Cunard]] liner {{SS|Russia|1867|2}} to return to Britain,<ref>{{cite book |last=Wills |first=Elspeth |title=The Fleet 1840 – 2010 |date=2010 |publisher=The Open Agency |location=London |isbn=9-780954-245184 |page=23}}</ref> barely escaping a [[tax lien|federal tax lien]] against the proceeds of his lecture tour.<ref>{{harvnb|Jackson|1995|p=333}}.</ref>{{clear}}