Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was a well-loved, Victorian-era British author and social critic. He wrote numerous works that are now considered classics and created some of the best-known fictional characters of all time. Born in 1812 near Portsmouth where his father was a clerk in the navy pay office, Charles Dickens' family moved to London in 1823, but their fortunes were severely impaired. Dickens was sent to work in a blacking-warehouse when his father was imprisoned for debt. Both experiences deeply affected the future novelist. In 1833 he began contributing stories to newspapers and magazines, and in 1836 started the serial publication of Pickwick Papers. Dickens published his major novels over the course of the next twenty years, from Nicholas Nickleby to Little Dorrit. He also edited the journals "Household Words" and "All the Year Round." Dickens died in June 1870. < p/> John Leech (29 August 1817 - 29 October 1864) was a British caricaturist and illustrator. He was best known for his work for Punch, a humorous magazine for a broad middle-class audience, combining verbal and graphic political satire with light social comedy. Many of his cartoons were concerned with the plight of the poor, though others were more straightforward humorous drawings. Some made occasional use of speech balloons and sequential drawings. One of them, 'Mr. Briggs' (1849), can be considered a prototypical comic series. Dickens said of his pictures that they were 'always the drawings of a gentleman.'
