One of Charles Dickens’s friends was Leigh Hunt, pictured here.  Hunt was an essayist, a publisher of literary journals, and a poet.  He had a tempestuous career, once being jailed for two years for libel against the Prince Regent.  Despite his success as a writer, he was improvident and constantly in financial difficulties.  Dickens assembled a group of amateur actors and staged several performances of Ben Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour for Hunt’s benefit.  Accompanying Hunt’s portrait is a two-page autograph letter by Hunt, dated November 5^th, 1838.  The letter is addressed to fellow writer R. H. Horne and “all who may be in his confidence on the subject.” The letter was apparently written after an illness, as Hunt expresses gratitude for the friendship of all those who “have enabled the wounded old bird to sing again.”