Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Theses Department of Communication 12-17-2014 Making it in America: How Charles Dickens and His Cunning Manager George Dolby Made Millions from a Performance Tour of The United States, 1867-1868 Jillian Martin Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_theses Recommended Citation Martin, Jillian, "Making it in America: How Charles Dickens and His Cunning Manager George Dolby Made Millions from a Performance Tour of The United States, 1867-1868." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2014. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_theses/112 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. MAKING IT IN AMERICA: HOW CHARLES DICKENS AND HIS CUNNING MANAGER GEORGE DOLBY MADE MILLIONS FROM A PERFORMANCE TOUR OF THE UNITED STATES, 1867-1868 by JILLIAN MARTIN Under the Direction of Leonard Teel, PhD ABSTRACT Charles Dickens embarked on a profitable journey to the United States in 1867, when he was the most famous writer in the world. He gave seventy-six public readings, in eighteen cities. Dickens and his manager, George Dolby, devised the tour to cash in on his popularity, and Dickens earned the equivalent of more than three million dollars. They created a persona of Dickens beyond the literary luminary he already was, with the help of the impresario, P.T. Barnum. Dickens became the first British celebrity to profit from paid readings in the United States.