[log in to unmask]" type="cite">
The discovery of the annotated-by-Dickens set of AYR is of course tremendous and will vastly simplify the jobs of future scholars and editors interested in Victorian periodicals. But we should keep in mind that Dickens's hand touched every article that appeared in AYR and that the anonymity of its authors was for a purpose: to keep the whole of the journal under Dickens's conducting. Anonymity also freed its contributors from being held responsible for their unsigned work. If I write an unsigned article, I'm going to give my employer what he wants and he in any case is going to edit and even re-write as he sees fit. Everything in AYR was in effect endorsed by Dickens and nothing others contributed, if unsigned, was endorsed by them. So I do not feel the critical ground shaking underneath me. (And I live in California.)