About the Dickens Society of Baltimore
Our History
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Our officers
President: Ruth Scally Contact: rue50@comcast.net Secretary: Andrea Struble Treasurer: William Balfour Sommelier: Ed Smith |
Our group became well seasoned under the guidance of Menalcus Lankford, first President and founder of the Baltimore Dickens Society, who established a scheduling pattern enjoyed by the members: a major novel is selected for the fall, with five monthly meetings from September to early January's conclusion. The year includes a mid-March meeting based on literary criticism of the fall novel. June sees a Dickens party which includes a presentation on Dickens' life as it relates to the next session's novel. It's also a good opportunity for the group to socialize.
Events of the last few years challenged the group. We saw the departure of Menalcus who moved to the west coast to join family; our meetings moved to a new location at the Church of the Redeemer on 5603 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21210, and then the pandemic put a halt to in-person meetings for a year and a half! We persevered though, as we conducted our meetings via zoom for the reading of Great Expectations. But now we are back to in-person meetings at the Church of the Redeemer.
Check out the video below for a fun but knowledgeable romp through many of Dickens's novels. .
Events of the last few years challenged the group. We saw the departure of Menalcus who moved to the west coast to join family; our meetings moved to a new location at the Church of the Redeemer on 5603 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21210, and then the pandemic put a halt to in-person meetings for a year and a half! We persevered though, as we conducted our meetings via zoom for the reading of Great Expectations. But now we are back to in-person meetings at the Church of the Redeemer.
Check out the video below for a fun but knowledgeable romp through many of Dickens's novels. .
Take a look at our current four page brochure:
Works Studied Since Our Founding
Fall 2010: Great Expectations
Spring 2011: Hard Times
Fall 2011: Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol
Spring 2012: Oliver Twist
2012-2013: Our Mutual Friend
2013-2014: Bleak House, "The Signalman"
2014-2015: Dombey and Son
2015-2016: David Copperfield
2016-2017: Little Dorrit
2017-2018: Nicholas Nickleby
2018-2019: The Mystery of Edwin Drood,
The Trial of John Jasper
2019-2020 The Old Curiosity Shop
2020-2021 Great Expectations
2021-2022 Martin Chuzzlewit
Dickens is my number one novelist. The moment I met him, around the age of fifteen, I fell in love with the vigour, the humour, the volcanic passion, the deep caring for humanity, the overwhelming love of language and the sheer elemental, uninstitutionalised exuberance of the man.
~~Stewart Ross, contemporary Canadian poet, short story writer and editor.
