Charles Dickens

Dickens worked with the illustrators Browne (‘Phiz’) and Cruikshank, and first met Thackeray when he applied unsuccessfully for similar work. He supposedly based the character Uriah Heep on Andersen, denied basing the unpleasant Skimpole on Leigh Hunt (for whom he helped organise a pension), and dedicated Hard Times to Carlyle. He toured Italy with Collins. In America he took snuff from Allston, celebrated Thanksgiving with Longfellow, shared Irving’s concern for proper copyright laws, and also befriended Emerson and Poe, whose poem ‘The Raven’ was inspired by Dickens’ pet raven Grip.