Editing American Notes (section)

==Background==

On 3 January 1842, one month shy of his 30th birthday, Dickens sailed with his wife, [[Catherine Dickens|Catherine]], and her maid, Anne Brown, from [[Liverpool]] on board the steamship [[RMS Britannia|RMS ''Britannia'']] bound for America.
Arriving in [[Boston]] on 22 January 1842, the author was at once mobbed. Dickens at first revelled in the attention, but soon the endless demands on his time began to wear on his enthusiasm. He complained in a letter to his friend [[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]]:

<blockquote>I can do nothing that I want to do, go nowhere where I want to go, and see nothing that I want to see. If I turn into the street, I am followed by a multitude.</blockquote>

He travelled mainly on the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]] and the [[Great Lakes]] area of both the United States and Canada, primarily by [[steamboat]], but also by rail and coach. During his extensive itinerary, he made a particular point of visiting prisons and [[mental institution]]s and even took a quick glimpse at the [[prairie]]. 
Among his early visits to American institutions, Dickens visited [[Perkins School for the Blind]] near Boston, where he met [[Laura Bridgman]], who is considered the first [[deaf-blind]] person to receive a significant education in English. His account of this meeting in ''American Notes'' would inspire [[Helen Keller]]'s parents to seek an education for their daughter.
He was particularly critical of the American press and the sanitary conditions of American cities. He also wrote merciless parodies of the manners of the locals, including, but not limited to, their rural conversations and practice of spitting tobacco in public (Ch. 8 – Washington):

<blockquote>As Washington may be called the headquarters of tobacco-tinctured saliva, the time is come when I must confess, without any disguise, that the prevalence of those two odious practices of chewing and expectorating began about this time to be anything but agreeable, and soon became most offensive and sickening.</blockquote>

In Washington, D.C., he called upon President [[John Tyler]] in the [[White House]], writing that:

<blockquote>... he looked somewhat worn and anxious, and well he might; being at war with everybody – but the expression of his face was mild and pleasant, and his manner was remarkably unaffected, gentlemanly, and agreeable. I thought that in his whole carriage and demeanour, he became his station singularly well.</blockquote>

Although generally impressed by what he found, he could not forgive the continued existence of [[slavery in the United States]], which he described as "that most hideous blot and foul disgrace ..."<ref>Charles Dickens, ''American Notes and Pictures from Italy'' (London: Chapman and Hall, 1888(, p. 24.</ref> The final chapters of the book are devoted to a criticism of the practice. He was also unhappy about [[copyright]] issues. Dickens, by this time, had become an international celebrity, but owing to the lack of an international copyright law, [[copyright violation|bootleg]] copies of his works were freely available in North America and he could not abide losing money. Dickens called for international copyright law in many of his speeches in America, and his persistence in discussing the subject led some critics to accuse him of having travelled to America primarily to agitate for that cause.<ref>Hudon, Edward G. "Literary Piracy, Charles Dickens and the American Copyright Law". ''American Bar Association Journal'', Vol. 50, No. 12 (December, 1964) p. 1159.</ref>

[[Letters of Charles Dickens|Dickens's letters]] home to his friends, including Forster and illustrator [[Daniel Maclise]], helped to form the basis of the book.