Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol, was born on February 7, 1812.

His early life began idyllically, but due to his father's imprisonment in Marshalsea Debtor's Prison, Dickens was forced at the age of twelve to leave school and work at Warren's Shoe Blacking Factory. The rest of his family moved into the prison, but Dickens was sent to live with a family friend so he could was to work.

Many of his books are based on his experiences as a child factory worker and the effects of being abandoned by his family.

Fortunately for Dickens (and us!), when his father was released, he made sure Dickens was able to return to school, saving him from a life of factory work.

As an adult, Dickens held several jobs, including working as a clerk at a law office and for a newspaper as a political journalist. His first published work for fiction was Sketches by Boz, which was published in 1836 and led to the serialization of his first novel, The Pickwick Papers.

Also in 1836, Dickens married Catherine Hogarth. They had 10 children.

Dickensian characters—especially their typically whimsical names—are among the most memorable in English literature. The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Fagin, Mrs Gamp, Charles Darnay, Oliver Twist, Micawber, Abel Magwitch, Samuel Pickwick, Miss Havisham, Wackford Squeers and many others are so well known and can be believed to be living a life outside the novels that their stories have been continued by other authors.

Most of Dickens's major novels were first written in monthly or weekly instalments in journals such as Master Humphrey's Clock and Household Words, later reprinted in book form. These instalments made the stories cheap, accessible and the series of regular cliff-hangers made each new episode widely anticipated. American fans even waited at the docks in New York, shouting out to the crew of an incoming ship, "Is Little Nell dead?"

Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870. Contrary to his wish to be buried in Rochester Cathedral, he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. The inscription on his tomb reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."

For more on Dickens, including TONS of analysis of every word he wrote, visit here.