Dickens in America in the 1850s. Miriam thinks Dickens would have been pleased to see the rebuilt monument. Ron Dale tells Miriam that Upper Canadians make it very clear that they distinguish themselves from Americans. Miriam travels to Toronto where she meets Dickens collector Dan Calinescu of "Boz and Friends Rare Books". His collection of over 5,000 items includes two original letters written by Dickens, a drawing of Nicholas Nickleby drawn by Catherine Dickens that looks a lot like her husband, first editions and playbills, including one from "The Frozen Deep" at Tavistock House. Miriam admits she is envious. In Montreal, Miriam tours
Francis Dickens Rudy Wiebe. In recent decades, Francis Dickens has been depicted as a comic figure. In "W.G. Grace's Last Case" (1984), by William Rushton, in a fantastic plot that includes fictional characters like Jekyll and Hyde and Dr. Watson, Francis Dickens encounters Apache Indians and (anachronistically) meets the famed cricketer of the title during the latter's team's 1872 North American tour. Francis Dickens later was the subject of a comic novel by humorist Eric Nicol, "Dickens of the Mounted" (1989). The book is a series of fictional letters, a mock document purporting to be a record of Dickens's correspondence spanning his