Charles John Huffam Dickens is the greatest English writer that ever lived. He was one of the most popular writers in the history of literature. Surely no English author is so well known and so widely read, translated and remembered as Charles Dickens. He fame is well deserved. From the pen of this great author came such characters as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, Mr. Pickwick, and Little Nett. Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth and spent most of his childhood in London and Kent, both of which appear frequently in his novels. Charles Dickens was the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. John Dickens worked as a clerk at the Navy pay office in Portsmouth. Charles, the second of seven children, went to the local school. John Dickens found it difficult to provide for his growing family on his small pay. 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. At age 12, Charles found work at Warren's Blacking Factory, where he was paid six shillings a week wrapping shoeblack bottles. The brief time that he worked at the Blacking Factory haunted him all of his life. He spoke of it only to his wife and to his closest friend, John Forster. The rough time he had there would show up in his stories David Copperfield and in Great Expectations. 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 educate 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 Dickens decided he wanted to become a reporter. He purchased a copy of Gurney's Brachgraph...
