Dickens gave his first public reading of A Christmas Carol in 1853 and continued to do so until the year of his death in 1870. A version of the popular dramatic reading, with an illustration by S. Eytinge, Jr., was first published in 1868 by Ticknor and Fields in Boston. According to the British Library, the publication may have come from  one of his specially prepared manuscripts, or it may “have been transcribed on behalf of the publishing firm.”
—Michael Main
Marley was dead to begin with. There was no doubt whatever about that.

Variants

(4)
  1. “A Christmas Carol,” as Condensed by Himself for His Readings by Charles Dickens (Fields, Osgood, 1868).
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Charles Dickens (based on a work by)
    Charles Dickens (abridgment)
  2. facsilime of Dickens’ hand-annotated copy.
    “A Christmas Carol,” the Public Reading Version by Charles Dickens (New York Public Library, 1971).
    3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Charles Dickens (based on a work by)
    Charles Dickens (abridgment)
    Charles Dickens (retelling)
  3. alternative title.
    “A Christmas Carol,” following the Version as Condensed by Charles Dickens for His Own Readings by Charles Dickens (Klett Ernst / Schulbuch, 1992).
    4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Charles Dickens (based on a work by)
    Charles Dickens (abridgment)
  4. audio reading.
    Neil Gaiman Reads “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, in Library Talks Podcast 41 (the New York Public Library, 22 December 2015. [Read from the only surviving “prompt” copy containing Dickens’ own handwritten annotations for his public reading.]).
    5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Charles Dickens (based on a work by)
    Charles Dickens (abridgment)
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . narrated by Neil Gaiman

Previous Works
abridgment of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)