The Illustrated Letters of Richard Doyle to His Father, 1842–1843. Doyle Richard

       29. April 16, 1843

       30. April [23], 1842 [1843]

       31. April 30, 1843

       32. May 7, 1843

       33. May 14, 1843

       34. May 21, 1843

       35. May 17 [27], 1843

       36. June 25, 1843

       37. July [2], 1843

       38. July 8, 1843

       39. [July 1843]

       40. August 6, 1842 [1843]

       41. August [13], 1843

       42. August 16, 1843

       43. August [20], 1843

       44. August 27, 1843

       45. September [10], 1843

       46. September [3 or 17], 1843

       47. September [24], 1843

       48. October 1, 1843

       49. October 15, 1843

       50. October 29, 1843

       51. November 12, 1843

       52. November 19, 1843

       53. December 17, 1843

       Afterword

       Gallery of Plates

       Bibliography

       Index

       Illustrations

      FIGURES

       1. Richard Doyle, The Tournament, or The Days of Chivalry Revived, 1840, p. 2

       2. Richard Doyle, The Christening Procession of Prince Taffy, 1842, p. 1

       3. Richard Doyle, “Celestial Guards,” from The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, 1842

       4. Richard Doyle, page from Illustrated Manuscript of the Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, ca. 1840

       5. Henry Doyle, ALS, March 12, 1842

       6. Paul Falconer Poole, Solomon Eagle Exhorting the People to Repentance, during the Plague of the Year 1665, 1843

       7. Richard Doyle, illustration for Charles Dickens, The Chimes, 1845

       8. Henry Doyle, ALS, Sunday, June 25, 1843

      PLATES

       1. Letter no. 8, p. 1

       2. Letter no. 8, p. 2

       3. Letter no. 28, p. 1

       4. Letter no. 34, p. 1

       5. Letter no. 34, p. 2

       6. Letter no. 34, p. 3

       7. Letter no. 52, p. 1

       8. Letter no. 52, p. 2

       9. Letter no. 52, p. 3

       10. Letter no. 53, p. 1

       11. Front page of 1850 Royal Academy exhibition catalogue with Richard Doyle’s drawings, recto

       12. Front page of 1850 Royal Academy exhibition catalogue with Richard Doyle’s drawings, verso

       13. “The Progress of Punch,” Punch 8, no. 182 (January 1845): 13

       14. Henry Doyle, ALS, “Sunday August the something,” p. 3

       15. Henry Doyle, ALS, “Sunday August the something,” p. 4

       Preface

      This is the first annotated scholarly edition of fifty-three illustrated letters that Richard “Dicky” Doyle sent to his father, John Doyle, between July 1842 and December 1843. A handful of visual extracts from the letters have appeared before, the most recent thirty years ago, but nothing like a comprehensive edition of the series has ever been published and is long overdue. Richard Doyle produced the letters as part of a weekly assignment beginning when he was seventeen years old. For a number of personal and professional reasons, as I explore more fully in the introduction, John Doyle charged Richard and his brothers with the task of describing their daily activities in a weekly epistle. He encouraged them to attend important cultural and civic events in London, to reflect on what they had learned from their formal schooling, and to enhance their verbal accounts with sketches and drawings. For their labors he paid them in coin, though he fined them if they missed or were late with an assignment.

      The Doyles were one of the most artistically