Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/96

 88 DICKENS DICKERS, Charles, an English novelist, born at Land port, a suburb of Portsmouth, Feb. 7, 1812, died at (iadshill, near Rochester, June 9, 1870. He was bapti/ed as Charles John Huff ham, and occasionally subscribed that name. His father, John Dickens, was a clerk in the navy pay office, stationed at Portsmouth dockyard, and Charles was the second of eight children. When he was four years old his parents re- moved to Chatham, where his education began, and where at the age of nine he produced a tragedy called "Misnar, the Sultan of India," founded on one of the " Tales of the Genii," which, with "Don Quixote," "Gil Bias," "Kobinson Crusoe," and the novels of Fielding and' Smollett, he had found in the house and eagerly devoured. The next year his father became bankrupt and was imprisoned, and the family moved to Bayham street, one of the poorest quarters of London, whence Charles was sent to work in a blacking manufactory. But the father, having received a small legacy, retrieved himself somewhat, became a reporter for the "Morning Chronicle," and placed his son, after two years of schooling, in an attor- ney's office. The drudgery of this place was not agreeable to the boy, who continued to give all his spare time to the reading of novels, and visited the theatre whenever he could command the means. In the course of a year or two he determined to become a parliamen- tary reporter, and set himself diligently to the study of shorthand. In this capacity, at the age of 19, he was employed by the " True Sun," and at 23 by the " Morning Chronicle." In the "Old Monthly Magazine" for January, 1834, appeared his first published sketch, "Mrs. Joseph Porter over the Way." Similar sketches appeared in the succeeding numbers of the year, under the signature "Boz;" and they were then discontinued because their author demanded pay, which the publisher was indis- posed to give. The signature " Boz " was a kind of mispronunciation of the name Moses, which was in the family given to a younger brother of Dickens, from a fancied resemblance to the Moses in Goldsmith's " Vicar of Wake- field." These sketches were continued for a year in the evening edition of the " Chronicle," and attracted considerable attention. Dickens received for them two guineas a week in addi- tion to his regular salary of five guineas. In 1836 they were collected and published in two volumes, illustrated by Cruikshank. In April of this year he married Catharine, eldest daugh- ter of George Hogarth, a writer for the " Chron- icle ;" and about the same time the first num- l>cr i,f "The Posthumous Papers of the Pick- wick Club " was announced. The firm of Chap- man and Hall had proposed to Dickens a work tattoo in monthly numbers, of which he should furnish the letterpress, and Mr. Sey- mour, a comic artist of some celebrity, the il- lustrations. Seymour died by his own hand just before the second number appeared, and Ilablot K. Browne (under the pseudonyme of " Phiz ") took his place. The first two or three numbers were not remarkably successful ; but after that, especially when Sam Weller ap- peared in the fifth number, the work gained rapidly, until at its completion Dickens was the most popular writer in the language. "The Pick- wick Papers" were published collectively in 1837. Meanwhile he had begun " Oliver Twist " in " Bentley's Miscellany," the first numbers of which were appearing simultaneously with the last of "Pickwick;" it was published in book form in 1838. In January of that year he as- sumed the editorship of "Bentley's Miscellany," but soon relinquished it. The " Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi " appeared in 1838, with the name of Dickens as editor; but he really con- tributed nothing to the book but the preface. " Nicholas Nickleby "was published in monthly numbers from April, 1838, to October, 1839. In 1838 he published anonymously a small vol- ume of sketches entitled "Young Gentlemen," and soon afterward another entitled "Young Couples." Under the general title of "Master Humphrey's Clock," " The Old Curiosity Shop " and "Barnaby Eudge" appeared in monthly numbers during 1840 and 1841, but subsequent- ly were published as distinct stories. In the latter year he travelled in the highlands of Scotland, taking his work with him and wri- ting at it regularly. On his return he wrote many political squibs, some of them in verse, directed against the tories. In January, 184$ Dickens and his wife sailed for America, land- ing at Boston on the 22d. Of that visit nei ther Mr. Dickens nor the American people hi reason to be proud. On their part he was re- ceived and f^ted with an admiration which degenerated into snobbishness ; and on his part the liberal but often ridiculous hospitality was repaid in the "American Notes" and "Martin Chuzzlewit " with sneers and caricature. He returned to England in June, and published "American Notes for General Circulation" to- ward the close of the year. In 1843 he wrote "The Christmas Carol," the first of a series of short stories for the holidays, in which benevo- lence, generosity, and kindly sympathy are in- culcated. These stories have met with a pop- ular appreciation not surpassed by his novels, and several of them have been dramatized. The titles and dates of the others are as follows : "The Chimes " (1844) ; "The Cricket on the Hearth " (1845) ; " The Battle of Life " (1846) ; "The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain " (1848); "Dr. Marigold's Prescriptions " (1865), of w T hich 250,000 copies were sold in England in one week; "Mugby Junction" (1866); and "No Thoroughfare" (1867). The last two were written in collaboration with others. "Martin Chuzzlewit" was published in 1844, and in July of that year Dickens went to Italy, where he resided about a year. On Jan. 1, 1846, he became editor of the "Daily News," a newly established morning journal of liberal politics, and in this his "Pictures from Italy " were first published. As a politi-