In an 1864 letter to John Foster Dickens writes, "At Astley's there has been much puffing at great coast of a certain Miss Adah Isaacs Menken, who is to be seen bound on the horse in 'Mazeppa' 'ascending the fearful precipices, not as hitherto done by a dummy'. Last night, having a boiling head, I went out from here to cool myself on Waterloo Bridge, and I thought I would go and see this heroine. . . . Now who do you think the lady is? If you do not already know, ask that question of the highest Irish mountains that look eternal, and they'll never tell you--Mrs. Heenan!" (227). "In the first copies of the little volume of poems entitled 'Infelicia', and published under the name of Adah Isaacs Menken of 'Mazeppa' renown, the following letter from Dickens, to whom the book was dedicated, appeared in facsimile. 'Gad's Hill Place, / Higham by Rochester, Kent, / Monday, Twenty-First October, 1867. / Dear Miss Menken, / I shall have great pleasure in accepting your dedication, and I thank you for your portrait as a highly remarkable specimen of photography. / I also thank you for the verses enclosed in your note. Many such enclosures come to me, but few so pathetically written, fewer still so modestly sent. / Faithfully yours, / Charles Dickens'. Before many copies of the book were sold this letter was suppressed" (248).
