Charles Dickens, the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens, was born in Landport on 7th February 1812.
John Dickens worked as a clerk at the Navy pay office in Portsmouth. He later found work in Chatham and Charles, the second of seven children, went to the local school.
John Dickens found it difficult to provide for his growing family on his meager income. In 1822 the family moved to Camden Town in London. John Dickens' debts had become so severe that all the household goods were sold. Still unable to satisfy his creditors, John Dickens was arrested and sent to Marshalsea Prison.
Charles, now aged twelve, found work at Warren's Blacking Factory, where he was paid six shillings a week wrapping shoe-black bottles. Six months after being sent to Marshalsea, one of John Dickens's relatives died. He was left enough money in the will to pay off his debts and to leave prison.
Some of the inheritance was used to educated Charles at a nearby private school, Wellington House Academy. Charles was only a moderate student and at the age of fifteen he left school and found work as an office boy in a firm of solicitors. Charles disliked the work but he did enjoy walking the streets in the evening observing the people of London.
Charles Dickens decided he wanted to become a reporter. He purchased a copy of Gurney's Brachgraphy and taught himself shorthand. In 1828, aged sixteen, Dickens found work as a court reporter. Later he joined the Mirror of Parliament, a newspaper that reported the daily proceedings of Parliament. Dickens considered most politicians to be "pompous" who seemed to spend most of the time speaking "sentences with no meaning in them". However, Dickens was impressed with some of the MPs who genuinely appeared to be interested in making Britain a better place to live.
Dickens became interested in the subject of social reform and started contributing articles to the radical newspaper, the True Sun. Unlike most radical newspapers such as the Poor Man's Guardian and The Gauntlet, it did pay the 4d. stamp duty.
Despite having to charge the heavy tax imposed on newspapers, the True Sun sold 30,000 copies a day. In his articles, Dickens used his considerable knowledge of what went on in the House of Commons to help promote the cause of parliamentary reform. Charles Dickens was pleased when Parliament eventually agreed to pass the 1832 Reform Act, however, like most radicals, he thought it did not go far enough. The new reformed House of Commons passed a series of new measures including a reduction in newspaper tax from 4d. to 1d. As a result, the circulation of the newspaper increased to over 60,000.
In 1833 Dickens had his first story published in the Monthly Magazine. Using the pen-name of 'Boz', Dickens also began contributing short stories to the Morning Chronicle and the London Evening Chronicle. These stories were so popular that they were collected together and published as a book entitled Sketches by Boz (1836).
Charles Dickens: A to Z
Charles Dickens
The publisher, William Hall, now commissioned Dickens to write The Pickwick Papers in twenty monthly installments. This was followed by Oliver Twist, published in Bentley's Miscellany (1837-38) and Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39), also published monthly. Dickens was now the most popular writer in Britain and over the next few years he wrote a series of popular novels including The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1), Barnaby Rudge (1841), Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-4) and A Christmas Carol (1843).
Although Dickens was now a very successful novelist, he continued to be interested in social reform. While in America in 1842 he upset his hosts by condemning slavery. Dickens also decided to invest some of his royalties in a new radical newspaper, The Daily News. Dickens became editor and in the first edition published on 21st January 1846, he wrote: "The principles advocated in The Daily News will be principles of progress and improvement; of education, civil and religious liberty, and equal legislation."
The Daily News was not a great commercial success and Dickens resigned as editor. However, he was determined to create a means where he could communicate his ideas on social reform and in 1850 he began editing Household Words. The weekly journal included articles on politics, science and history. To increase the number of people willing to buy Household Words, it also contained short stories and humourous pieces. Dickens also used the journal to serialize novels that were concerned with social issues such as his own Hard Times (1854) and Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South (1855). By 1851 the twenty-four page Household Words was soon selling 40,000 copies a week.
Dickens published Household Words between 1850 and 1859 and during that time campaigned in favour of parliamentary reform and improvements in the education of the poor. Dickens's was extremely hostile to the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Actand wrote several articles on the workhouse system. Dickens was also concerned with public health and the reform of the legal system.
When Dickens's argued with the publishers of Household Words in 1859, he closed the journal and replaced it with All the Year Round. The new journal still covered social issues but mainly concentrated on literary matters. Several important novels were serialized in the journal including Dickens's own A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1860-61). The journal also published three of Wilkie Collins's novels, The Woman in White (1860), No Name (1862) and The Moonstone (1868).
Charles Dickens continued to published All the Year Round until his death on 8th June, 1870.
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