His scholarship on the subject continued over the years until, based on his life’s work, editors at AMS Press in New York called him to compile a detailed list of all the scholarly writings about Dickens’ nonfiction, letters and poems.

His book was part of a collection of books about Dickens, and it was the first of its kind. Nowhere else is there an exhaustive collection of writings on the work of Charles Dickens.

“A lot of folks were waiting for my book,” he said.

The book is not the kind one sits back and loses himself in a good yarn. It’s very much an academic book, but Hanna says he’s comfortable with his place in the history of Dickensian research.

And if you want a copy, better save your pounds and pence. The clothbound volume sells for $187.50.