1812-1870
The famed British writer was born Charles John Huffam Dickens in Portsmouth, England into a naval family; he was the second of 8 children. By 11 years of age he had become a voracious reader. His father was in and out of naval service, and when out the family lived in London, they had a tendency to live beyond their means. When Dickens was 12, his father was forced into debtors prison; with his mother and youngest siblings joining him there. Charles stayed with an old family friend. In order help his family, he had to leave school and work at Charing Cross railway station. When his work moved to Chadon street, there was a window facing onto a sidewalk, where people would stop and gawk at the children workers--a new embarrassing low for Dickens. This was an event that would leave a deep mark on him and was an inspiration for several characters and subjects in his writing. When a family member died and left a legacy of £450, the fortunes of family turned; his father, John, could pay his debtors and leave prison. However, his mother wanted young Charles to continue in factory work--leaving a deep and lasting emotional wound on the young man. He was eventually sent off to school in Camden, and spent about 2 and half years there; after which he went to work as a law clerk. During this time, he became a frequent attendee at the local theater--it became an obsession of his. In his spare time he taught himself short hand, after which he went to work as a freelance reporter. This would be his first real writing. At the age of 20, in 1832, he actually considered becoming an actor at one point and set up an audition, which he ultimately missed due to a short illness. Before he could arrange another audition, he started writing short stories instead. It was 1833 when he submitted his first story for publication. He was then asked to work for a news publication that covered Parliament; so he went to work as political journalist. In this capacity, he both covered parliamentary debates and travelled to cover campaigns in various locations in England. Eventually this situation lead to his first collected published work in 1836, Sketches by Boz. During this same period of time, he became friendly with music critic and musicologist George Hogarth, owed to Hogarth's work as a news paper editor. Hogarth, impressed with Dickens' work, invited him to contribute to the new evening edition of the Morning Chronicle, which Hogarth was hired to over-see. Dickens soon became a family friend, and enamored of Hogarth's nineteen year old daughter Catherine, who would become his wife (and with whom he would have ten children). This acquaintance lead to introductions, through a friendship with novelist Ainsworth, to a great number of luminaries of the time, including writers and politicians. It was amongst these group of men that he met his first publisher. This quickly lead to the publishing in a series of installments of The Pickwick Papers. The age of his novel writing career had dawned in his life; and he was quickly popular--with even the young Queen reading his works. This also lead to a great deal of traveling into the early 1840's--what we would call today "book tours." Obviously Dickens is one the most important literary AND social figures of the nineteenth century, it would be pointless to attempt a full biographical encapsulation here (there are links a plenty below!), but it is worth mentioning that due the immense figure that he cut in the world, it is wholly unsurprising that his work was amongst the earliest used for the purposes of narrative film making. In 1897 the American Mutoscope Co. produced Death of Nancy Sykes based on Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. This film featured a very popular vaudevillian pair Charles Ross and Mabel Fenton. The following year another film--Mr. Bumble the Beadle--was also made from the novel, this time in his native UK; produced by Robert W. Paul--the first of several films the producer and is company would make from Dickens' work--and the first in the author's birth country. These were the only two films made before the turn of the new century, but with the release of The Death of Poor Joe in 1901 (directed by the British film pioneer George Albert Smith), there was/is no lack of Dickens films and, later, television episodes produced from his work until well...whenever. It worth noting that the first time that a film based on A Christmas Carol--arguably Dickens most popular, certainly most well known, work around the glob--was also produced in 1901; and was, in fact, the fourth film ever made from his work. It is just a remarkable that the film has survived! Scrooge; or Marley's Ghost was also a curiosity because the Victorian/Edwardian writer J. C. Buckstone had adapted the work for the stage and the film is as much based on his adaptation as it is Dickens' original. It would be the first of dozens of filmed renditions. And speaking of "dozens," there were also dozens of films during the silent era based various works by Dickens, including, somewhat surprisingly, works based on some of his longest novels. It is curious, though, that in the middle of the 1920's, the use of his work for films slowed conspicusouly, with only three films released between 1925 and 1930. Of these, two of them: Bleak House (1926) and Scrooge (1928) are curiosities of early sound. Both are productions of the British De Forest company, whose "Phonofilm" mechanism was one of the earliest contenders for selling sound to major studios (the last silent film made from his work was The Only Way released in 1926--which made history in it's own right for being the most expensive UK film to date and the first 10 reeler produced in the country). The first film made in the age of sound of Dickens' work came in 1931 with Paramount's Rich Man's Folly starring George Bancroft and Frances Dee; it was based on one of his lesser read novels Dombey and Son. The first adaptation for television came early on in 1938, with the made-for-tv short film Bardell Against Pickwick. Also not surprising, the first episode of an actual television series was based on A Christmas Carol as a 1948 episode of Repertory Theater. Since the rising popularity of the television mini-series starting in the 1960's--the full use of his novels for filmed productions has only increased over the decades (the first actual mini-series in the form we have come to know it today was filmed in early in 1959 in the UK, in an eleven episodes based on Bleak House). The most recently released production--again, unsurprisingly--is the 2018 An Evening of Dickens 'Round the Fire...A Christmas Carol--a video release. The Personal History of David Copperfield--a UK production with Tilda Swinton & Ben Whishaw--is slated for release later in the year. A further six projects have been announced, four of them based on A Christmas Carol. On the 18th of April 1869, Dickens suffered a stroke; and though slowed, he continued on with writing and speaking/reading engagements. On the 8th of June 1870, he suffered another stroke from which he would never wake--he apparently succumbed the next day, though the exact details as to when and where he passed are shrouded in mystery owed to the circumstances of his living with mistress half his age at the time. One thing that is crystal clear; his wishes that he be buried in a simple fashion at Rochester Cathedral were not honored, and he was instead buried with full pomp and circumstance at Westminster Abbey where he was laid to rest in the Poet's Corner.
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