~Started school at age nine
~Started working at age 12 because father was arrested. He worked in a blacking house until he returned to school.
~Dickens went to school unitl he was fourteen, when he was re-employed, this time at a legal clerk's office.
~At age 15, he began reporting on the debates and dealings in Parliment and court trials.
~His first works published were desciptive snapshots of London life under the psuedonym Boz. This work was aptly named "Sketches by Boz".
~He met Phiz (illustrator) soon after he was married.
~Dickens began publishing The Pickwick Papers in 1836 and continued in monthly installments until 1837.
~In 1842, he came to America to protest slavery and propose an international copyright agreement.
~He divorced his wife in 1848, leaving her with ten kids.
~Dickens died of a stroke in 1870.