THE DICKENS FELLOWSHIP
 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Welcome To The Pittsburgh Branch of the
Dickens Fellowship

With the prudent management of Mr. Jim Herbert, our treasurer at the time, the inheritance was wisely invested and each year the proceeds are donated to such charities as the Dickens House and Oliver Fund (London), Bethlehem Haven, Rainbow Kitchen, The Children’s Institute, Ronald McDonald House, Animal Care SPCA and many others.

For many years, Miss Nelson was practically unknown to all but the older members of the Fellowship, but in 1992 the Governing Board decreed that she would be remembered each year by naming our February meeting The Louise V. Nelson Memorial Meeting. With elimination of the February meeting in 2009, the branch now remembers Miss Nelson and her legacy each March.

Dr. Cheryl Wilson currently serves as a member of the branch’s Executive Board and is a professor of 19th Century British Literature and Women's Literature at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her most recent publication is the book Literature and Dance in Nineteenth-Century Britain (2009), which is part of Cambridge University Press’s Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture Series. She is also the president of English Association of Pennsylvania State Universities, an organization dedicated to excellence in English studies.

With the "Is it Charles Dickens or Edward Bulwer-Lytton?" Quiz, Dr. Wilson will test our ability to distinguish between the writings of these well-known Victorian authors and friends. Perhaps we may discover why the former is remembered so fondly, while the latter has a bad fiction competition named for him. On the other hand, perhaps we will leave wondering why such a difference exists at all.

The November and February meetings have been cut, leaving October, December, March and April, as well as the June Ramble in place. The branch will continue to meet on the third Saturday of October, March and April, but will meet on the first Saturday of December. We will celebrate Boz's birthday in March. Likewise, the number of newsletters will be reduced accordingly, appearing only in those months in which the branch meets.