The hymn that concludes 'Poor Dick's Story' has been attributed to Dickens by F. G. Kitton (Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens, 1903, pp. 203-4) and by Harry Stone (Uncollected Writings, II, 564) on the basis of a letter sent by Dickens to an enquirer about its author (Letters, 8, 244). Harriet Parr (pseud., 'Holme Lee') reprinted the entire 'Poor Dick' item, including the poem, in The Wortlebank Diary [...] by Holme Lee (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1860), acknowledging its original publication in Household Words. See Deborah Thomas, Dickens and the Short Story (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982) 180n. for sources that reaffirm Parr's authorship of the poem.
The interpolated story told in 'Poor Dick's Story' is by Harriet Parr ('Holme Lee'). The Introduction [from the start to 'as if he must tell us who and what he was' , p. 590] and Conclusion [from 'When he ceased speaking' to the end, p. 593] to 'Poor Dick's Story,' however, are part of the framework of The Wreck of the 'Golden Mary' - part, that is, of the linking and bridging sections that Dickens usually wrote himself. See also The Seven Poor Travellers, The Wreck of the 'Golden Mary,' [1856 Christmas] and 'The Beguilement in the Boats.'
Harry Stone; © Bloomington and Indiana University Press, 1968. DJO gratefully acknowledges permission to reproduce this material.
