Not identified. Directories do not list a Miss Gibson at the address given. The second initial recorded for Miss Gibson in the Office Book entry for her first contribution cannot be read as other than "H"; it may be intended for "A” or it may be a mis-recording. The contributor is clearly the Miss Gibson to whom Dickens wrote on December 17 1857. Sotheby's 1938 sales catalogue of a portion of Count de Suzannet's library lists Dickens's letter of that date, addressed to Miss Mary W. A. Gibson, and quotes some lines from it; Nonesuch Letters gives the entire letter, with the addressee recorded as "Miss Mary A. W. Gilson". Dickens's letter indicates that Miss Gibson had written to ask for help or advice in getting her writings published. Dickens wrote that no touch of his pen would do for the writings what they could not do for themselves, and then suggested: "If you should desire to offer anything to Household Words, I will promptly read it myself". He proposed, also, two days on which Miss Gibson might call to see him; he would see her, he wrote, with "the greatest readiness". The first contribution that the Office Book assigns to Miss Gibson appeared a little more than two months after Dickens's invitation to her to become a contributor.

Dickens's letter of October 20 1858, to "Miss Gibson", thanking her for her "warm-hearted and earnest letter" at the time of the scandal concerning his domestic affairs, is probably to the same Miss Gibson.

Alice and Phoebe Cary included "Lost Alice" in their Josephine Gallery, 1859.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1973.