This Day in History: A 9th instalment of The Mystery of Edwin Drood was supposed to be published on this day in 1870. This final novel by Charles Dickens was never completed as Dickens passed away on June 9th of that year.
However, things don't quite end there. Thomas Power James (better known as T. P. James) in Brattleboro, Vermont, claimed, in 1872, that Charles Dickens contacted him from beyond the grave and gave him power of attorney to complete The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
"Numerous witnesses later testified that James would retire to his room, slump in a chair and go into trances that often lasted for hours. Afterward, young James would often write furiously, explaining to his friends that he was creating nothing...merely writing down the material which Dickens had given to him while he was entranced. Sometimes the material would cover many pages; at other times it consisted of only a few lines. Spirits, it seemed, had difficulties in transmission when the weather was bad." Stranger than Science by Frank Edwards.
Word got out about this strange project and many decried this all as a hoax, but when it was published on October 31 1873, the T.P. James became an overnight sensation. Many were astounded as to how remarkably the young man was able to write in Dickens' own voice. There were critics as well, but even Sherlock Holmes' creator Arthur Conan Doyle commented that "If it be indeed a parody it has the rare merit among parodies of never accentuating or exaggerating the peculiarities of the original."
T. P. James eventually faded from the public spotlight and would go on to die in obscurity.
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