Charlie in the White House

The fragmentary material that survives suggests the narrative would have followed Charlie, his family, and Willy Wonka after their invitation to the White House by the President following their victory over the Vermicious Knids, likely exploring how the characters interact with political and cultural institutions after their extraordinary experiences.^[2]

The Charlie Bucket series began with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), in which Charlie Bucket becomes the designated heir to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and, by extension, his confectionery empire. The sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972), continues the story with Charlie, his family, and Wonka aboard a flying glass elevator that travels into space before returning to Earth. At the end of The Great Glass Elevator, the U.S. President Lancelot R. Gilligrass invites Charlie and his companions to the White House to honour their heroism after rescuing a spacecraft, setting up the premise for a subsequent story.^[3]

Dahl began work on a third Charlie book, provisionally titled Charlie in the White House (sometimes informally referenced by that title in secondary literature) sometime after the second novel's publication. According to accounts from Dahl reference works, he wrote only the first chapter of the manuscript. This chapter is reportedly on display at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England.^[4] Because Dahl never completed the book, it has remained unpublished and is not part of the canonical Charlie series that includes the first two books.^[5]