Inventing Scrooge ─ The Incredible True Story Behind Dickens' Legendary A Christmas Carol

In 1843 Charles Dickens took a train to Manchester, England, and conceived the idea of A Christmas Carol. Weaving intensely personal strands from his own life (almost every character was plucked from his life), he wrote, in one month, one of the most famous Christmas tales of all time. Inventing Scrooge is the story behind the train ride that ultimately changed Christmas.

It was the most important journey of his life–and one of the most significant in the history of literature. On October 4, 1843, Charles Dickens boarded a train from London to Manchester to give a speech at the Manchester Atheneum, exhorting his audience towards charity for all. Dickens believed in educating men, women, and children, insisting that charitable institutions which provided knowledge, would lead to a better class of skilled and educated workers, and better citizens. Dickens insisted that the holiday season was a good time to give. Still, Dickens was not impressed by his own efforts. Giving such speeches, two to three hundred people at a time, was not the way to reach his audience and spread his meaning. It was too piece meal and took too long. It was on this train ride to make this speech that the first ideas came to Dickens to instead, write a story that might advance his cause in a much more effective way. As the train lurched by the engine works at grimy Camden Town, Dickens thoughts must have tripped backwards in his mind, to a time in his youth, when he and his many brothers and sisters lived all jammed into a small home, where the Dickens family led a meager and lean life, as his father struggled with mounting debt. On this eight-hour ride, the seeds for one of his most famous stories came to life – A Christmas Carol. Dickens became obsessed by the story. He wrote that as the tale unfolded he ‘wept and laughed, and wept again' and that he 'walked about the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed.’ And almost every aspect of the story came to him as it pulled it from his life. ‧ The nephew, Fred, who comes to see Scrooge is a carefree spirit, who lives what Scrooge considers to be a spendthrift existence, much like Dickens own brother Fred was in real life. ‧ Fred is the son of Scrooge’s sister, Fan. In real life, Dickens’ favorite and closest sibling was Fran (or Fanny). ‧ Tiny Tim was modeled on Dickens’ nephew Henry Burnett Jr., who was small and handicapped. ‧ The Cratchits were the Dickens family of Charles’ youth. The Dickens lived in Camden Town, eight to a small, row house, with little money. ‧ Much like Ebernezer Scrooge, Dickens own real life wife Catherine Hogarth, tried to break off their engagement citing that Dickens was more obsessed with making money than spending time with her. Dickens took up all these threads, and wove them into one of the most magical tales of all time. And it all came from this trip to Manchester.

Carlo DeVito is a notable publisher, editor, author, and winemaker. His most recent book, A Mark Twain Christmas, earned national publicity and quickly sold out in its first printing in December 2013. He has also written on dogs, sports, and wine?–his three dog books were very successful, including the Everything Puppy Book (now in its second edition), the Everything Dog Book (now in its second edition), and his most recent dog book, 10 Secrets My Dog Taught Me. His most notable sports books include D. Wayne: The High-Rolling and Fast Times of America’s Premiere Horse Trainer; Wellington: The Maras, The Giants and The City of New York; and Yogi: The Life and Times of an American Original. Carlo and his wife Dominique own the highly acclaimed Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, New York. He is also the editor/author of the popular and widely respected blog East Coast Wineries (www.eastcoastwineries.blogspot.com), which reviews wines from Maine to Virginia and is an extension of his book East Coast Wineries: The Complete Guide from Maine to Virginia (Rutgers University Press, 2001). Carlo he has appeared on television dozens of times including multiple times as guests on CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX morning shows in New York, as well as throughout the eastern seaboard. He has been a featured guest on WFAN (both TV and Radio), ESPN radio, WCBS and WABC radio, WAMC, and more than 60 radio stations nationwide. He has edited and written more than a dozen books reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and other national newspapers. As an editor and publisher, Carlo has acquired, edited, and published such authors as Stephen Hawking, Malachy McCourt, John Edgar Wideman, Stanley Crouch, Dee Brown, Dan Rather, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Eleanor Clift, Susie Bright, Jane Goodall, Philip Caputo, Julia Alvarez, Budd Schulberg, Haynes Johnson, Dr. Howard Shapiro, Bo Dietl, Thomas Hoving, Peter Kaminisky, and Penelope Hobhouse. He published Strange Fruit, by David Margolich, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and was instrumental in the acquisition of The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. As publisher of Miniature Editions, he introduced several new lines and licenses, including …for Dummies, Joy of Cooking, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Deepak Chopra, Suze Orman, and the Sweet Potato Queens. He also created the Mini Kit, with more than 20 million units to date. At Simon & Schuster, he was one of key planners of the Scriber Library paperback line as well as editor of Best American Erotica.