'Dickens Dinner' Speaker Entertains, Raises Funds For Local Literacy
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Few people know that author Charles Dickens invented paperback books, the concept of a "white Christmas" and cliffhanger endings, and even inspired the first greeting card - a Christmas card.
The almost 200 people at the "Dickens Dinner" Thursday learned those facts and many more from an entertaining lecture by Dr. Elliott Engel, professor of English and American literature at North Carolina State University.
The dinner, at Tippecanoe Lake Country Club, was a fund-raiser for Kosciusko Literacy Services and was organized by the Literacy Leaders Auxiliary of KLS. According to Rebecca Kubacki, Auxiliary co-chairwoman, the event raised approximately $20,000 for KLS.
Kubacki was instrumental in bringing Engel to speak at the dinner.
"I first heard Dr. Engel speak in Pasadena, Calif., several years ago," she said, "and he was just fabulous."
Kubacki also read a letter she received from first lady Laura Bush, supporting the mission of KLS and underlining the importance of literacy.
Engel said Dickens invented the concept of a cozy white Christmas.
"Charles Dickens was the first human being to connect snow and Christmas," he said, which was ironic because it rarely snows on Christmas in England.
Dickens also inspired the first Christmas card, he said. It was sent Dec. 11, 1843, three days after "A Christmas Carol" was written, by an Englishman who read the book and was so touched by it that he wanted his family and friends to hear from him.
"That means Charles Dickens is responsible for the entire greeting card industry that sprang up from that book," Engel said.
Dickens' first book, "The Pickwick Papers," was sold in serial form, three chapters at a time, and, to keep costs down, the installments were published with paper covers. To keep readers coming back for the next three chapters, Engel said, Dickens ended each installment suspensefully, thus inventing the "cliffhanger" ending.
"It was an act of commercial genius," he said, and the book was the best-selling novel of 1836 and 1837 - and Dickens started it when he was 23.
When "A Christmas Carol" was published in 1843, Engel said, an astounding 94 percent of the reading public in America and England bought the book.
"The real secret of Dickens' greatness is that he was 31 and he got 94 percent of the people to read it," Engel said.
Dickens earned the equivalent of $68 million as a writer, Engel said, writing 16 major books.
"His artistic genius and commercial genius were never duplicated," he said.
Thursday's event was sponsored by Zimmer and R.R. Donnelley & Sons, and Sound Wise Productions donated the sound services.
For more information about Kosciusko Literacy Services or the Literacy Leaders Auxiliary, contact Brenda Rigdon, KLS executive director, at 267-5380. [[In-content Ad]]
Few people know that author Charles Dickens invented paperback books, the concept of a "white Christmas" and cliffhanger endings, and even inspired the first greeting card - a Christmas card.
The almost 200 people at the "Dickens Dinner" Thursday learned those facts and many more from an entertaining lecture by Dr. Elliott Engel, professor of English and American literature at North Carolina State University.
The dinner, at Tippecanoe Lake Country Club, was a fund-raiser for Kosciusko Literacy Services and was organized by the Literacy Leaders Auxiliary of KLS. According to Rebecca Kubacki, Auxiliary co-chairwoman, the event raised approximately $20,000 for KLS.
Kubacki was instrumental in bringing Engel to speak at the dinner.
"I first heard Dr. Engel speak in Pasadena, Calif., several years ago," she said, "and he was just fabulous."
Kubacki also read a letter she received from first lady Laura Bush, supporting the mission of KLS and underlining the importance of literacy.
Engel said Dickens invented the concept of a cozy white Christmas.
"Charles Dickens was the first human being to connect snow and Christmas," he said, which was ironic because it rarely snows on Christmas in England.
Dickens also inspired the first Christmas card, he said. It was sent Dec. 11, 1843, three days after "A Christmas Carol" was written, by an Englishman who read the book and was so touched by it that he wanted his family and friends to hear from him.
"That means Charles Dickens is responsible for the entire greeting card industry that sprang up from that book," Engel said.
Dickens' first book, "The Pickwick Papers," was sold in serial form, three chapters at a time, and, to keep costs down, the installments were published with paper covers. To keep readers coming back for the next three chapters, Engel said, Dickens ended each installment suspensefully, thus inventing the "cliffhanger" ending.
"It was an act of commercial genius," he said, and the book was the best-selling novel of 1836 and 1837 - and Dickens started it when he was 23.
When "A Christmas Carol" was published in 1843, Engel said, an astounding 94 percent of the reading public in America and England bought the book.
"The real secret of Dickens' greatness is that he was 31 and he got 94 percent of the people to read it," Engel said.
Dickens earned the equivalent of $68 million as a writer, Engel said, writing 16 major books.
"His artistic genius and commercial genius were never duplicated," he said.
Thursday's event was sponsored by Zimmer and R.R. Donnelley & Sons, and Sound Wise Productions donated the sound services.
For more information about Kosciusko Literacy Services or the Literacy Leaders Auxiliary, contact Brenda Rigdon, KLS executive director, at 267-5380. [[In-content Ad]]