Charles Dickens: the Legacy of “a Rock Star” in Lowell, Massachusetts (1842). Navigating the Victorian Writer’s Concern for Social Welfare

The article will introduce the first American tour, with a focus on the visit to Lowell, Massachusetts, of the famous Victorian writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870). When he arrived in Boston in January 1842 with his wife, he was welcomed like “a rock star”. He then embarked on a tour of the American prisons, hospitals, mental institutions and in February he reached the industrial town of Lowell, where he was mostly interested in the recently opened textile mills, the “mill girls” and immigration. Upon his return from the US, Dickens published American Notes, portraying America in both negative and positive notes. All in all, it appears that America had a significant role in Dickens’s career as it made him use his growing influence as a public figure. The UMass Lowell organized in 2012 a Dickens in Lowell celebration of the tour, continued by an extended Dickens in Lowell Project, meant to promote the town as a cultural and literary tourist destination by focusing on a writer deeply concerned with the welfare of the society. Virtual tourists are also encouraged to learn more about Dickens’s stay in Lowell by accessing an online guide of the writer’s stops in the town (https://dickens.archives-uml.com/VWT/WalkingTour/INDEX.html).