Introduction
The first bit of original writing by Dickens which found its way into print was the sketch in this volume entitled "Mr. Minns and his Cousin." In its first form as "A Dinner at Poplars Walk" it was contributed to "The Monthly Magazine," where it appeared in December, 1833. Dickens was twenty-one years old at the time, and a newspaper reporter, but he had from early boyhood been observant of his destiny, and in the offering and publication of this sketch he enjoyed the familiar experience of the author conscious of his purpose, but heightening the effect of that consciousness when his memory was called on to reproduce the moment when he knocked at the door of Fate. He dropped his manuscript stealthily one evening "into a dark letter-box in a dark office up a dark court in Fleet Street," and when he had bought the number of the magazine containing it, "walked down to Westminster Hall," he says, "and turned into it for half an hour because my eyes were so dimmed with joy and pride that they could not bear the street, and were not fit to be seen there." One could wish, for the point it would make, that the happy young author on the threshold of his great career had turned aside into the cool retreat of Westminster Abbey, by that little postern door, through which so many have gone to look at his grave.
Four more papers followed the first in the same magazine in the winter and spring of 1834, all without any author's name, and then in August, 1835, when he printed "The BoardingHouse, " he appended to it the signature Boz. He has himself explained the origin of this pseudonym, an abbreviation of Boses, a facetious variation of Moses, and he used it on the monthly parts of "Pickwick," which began to appear before the " Sketches " had been finished in their periodical form. Nine of these papers were contributed to "The Monthly Magazine, " but they brought no return in money. They did bring him to the notice, however, of Mr. George Hogarth, who was connected with "The Morning Chronicle," as was Dickens himself in the humble capacity of reporter. Mr. Hogarth, was planning an evening edition of the paper, and invited Dickens to write a sketch for the first number. The letter which Dickens wrote in reply to the application was as follows: —
TO MR. GEORGE HOGARTH.
13 Furnival's Inn, Tuesday Evening, Twentieth January, 1835.
My dear Sir, — As you have begged me to write an original sketch for the first number of the new evening paper, and as I trust to your kindness to refer my application to the proper quarter, should I be unreasonably or improperly trespassing upon you, I beg to ask whether it is probable that if I commenced a series of articles, written under some attractive title, for "The Evening Chronicle," its conductors would think I had any claim to some additional remuneration (of course, of no great amount) for doing so 1
Let me beg of you not to misunderstand my meaning. Whatever the reply may be, I promised you an article, and shall supply it with the utmost readiness, and with an anxious desire to do my best, which I honestly assure you would be the feeling with which I shall always receive any request coming personally from yourself. I merely wish to put it to the proprietors, first, whether a continuation of light papers in the style of my " Street Sketches " would be considered of use to the new paper; and, secondly, if so, whether they do not think it fair and reasonable that, taking my share of the ordinary reporting business of " The Chronicle " besides, I should receive something for the papers beyond my ordinary salary as a reporter.
Begging you to excuse my troubling you, and taking this opportunity of acknowledging the numerous kindnesses I have already received at your hands since I have had the pleasure of acting under you,
I am, my dear Sir,
Very sincerely yours,
Charles Dickens.
The personal feeling toward Mr. Hogarth which this letter intimates gathered an additional force doubtless from the circumstance that in this year he became engaged to Mr. Hogarth's daughter. His request was referred to the proprietors of "The Chronicle," and two guineas a week added to the salary of the young reporter, who was then receiving five guineas.