Deadline: 29 April 2022
Between February and March 2022, we challenged solvers to tackle a shorthand challenge from the notebooks of Dickens’s shorthand pupil, Arthur Stone, at the Free Library of Philadelphia. The main clue that we had to go on was the title in longhand, evocatively titled ‘Nelson’. For the month of April, we are challenging solvers to work on the final sentence of page one and find out how this exercise continues on page two.
Image © The Free Library of Philadelphia [ref: cdc5890009]
Use our ‘Resources’ to help you decipher the text and look out for words written in longhand as well. Remember that it is unlikely that you will be able to solve the whole text, but even one new symbol can be useful. There are plenty of new Dickens symbols in the ‘Nelson’ text that have never been transcribed before. Anyone who successfully describes a new symbol with be credited as its discoverer on our Roll of Honour.
On 15 April, we will also be releasing the crowdsourced transcription of the first page – so do check back then, for further clues to assist with your solve! Please complete the entry form below and email us your solutions by 29 April 2022.
We will publish the results on 13 May 2022.