In a letter of January 2, 1844, to an American friend, Dickens, speaking of himself in the third person, described writing A Christmas Carol: "Charles Dickens wept, and laughed, and wept again, and excited himself in a most extraordinary manner in the composition: and thinking whereof he walked about the black streets of London, fifteen and twenty miles, many a night when all the sober folks had gone to bed." His enthusiasm has been shared by millions of later readers. Dickens wrote the story out of financial need. Requiring something shorter than a novel and sure to please, he wrote it in five months and published it himself, pricing it cheaply so that more people could afford it. It was an immediate, immense success.