Posthumous authorship?

I STARTED reading the article in Socialism Today No.156 on the early life and times of Charles Dickens and nearly fell off my chair when I read "the Mystery of Edwin Drood, left incomplete at the author's death in 1872". By 1872 this book would have been finished; and no doubt Dickens would have received adulation on this side of the Atlantic and on the other had it not been for a certain inconvenience. By 1872 Dickens was a pile of rotting bones and flesh as he died on 9 June 1870. As it is the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth I thought the date of his death might have been noted in the same token.

Paul Wade, Sheffield

Editor’s note: Paul is, of course, right, it was a glaring mistake. To recompense Dickens’ admirers, a second article will appear in a future edition looking at the novels.