Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-01-29
The circumstances under which Dick.
ems wrote oliver Twist.

CnS HEOAO OAANOG ANlsI
R. Sheldon Mckenzie furnishes the fol-
lowing bit of gossip to the Round Table J.:
AS l am gossiping about Dickens and
his artists, let me mention a singular cir
cumstsnce connected with I" Oliver Twist"
You may not remember, perhaps, how
that story was first published. Mr.. r.
Bentley, the London publisher, after he
had separated from his partner, the late
Mr.. Henry Colburn, resolved to have a
magazine Of his own. Mr.. Colburn's
New Monthly" was not only profitable
speculation, but had been made extremely
useful as a medium through which Mr..
Colburn's publications could be widely
and strongly pulled. Mr.. Bentley an
nounced his intended periodical as "The
Wits Miscellany" but soon changed title
to "Bentleys Miscellany" 1t is stated
and believed, for his snsrl was not to be
initiated, that Douglas Jerrold sarcastical-
ly observed, when the publisher mention
ed the change of title, "It's all very well
Il can understand why you should not
call it The Wits Miscellany but, my
dear fellow, there was no occasion for
going into the other extreme, and calling
it 'Bentley's." At all events, the a 2
zine was commenced on the LIST of Janu-
AIRY, 1897, and Charles Dickens, then in
the FIRST flush of his fame-for "Sketehes
by Boz" and the "Piokwick Papsrs' had
just been published, and were in every
ones hands-wss made its editor,
at a salary said to exceed 3d. 900
per annum, besides separate pay
ments of 20 guineas a sheet
far whatever he might please to contrib
ute as author. "Oliver Twist" was COM
meneed in the February number, with
illustrations by George Cruikshank. The
seventh chapter ends with the flight of
Oliver from Mr.. Towerberry, and that
terrible besdle, Mr.. Bundle, and his bid
ding farewell to his poor little friend
Dick, the paroehial orphan, to whom be
says, al am running away. They beat
and i'll use me, Dick, and / am going to
seek my fortune soms long way of, 1
don't know where" At the opening of
the eighth chapter, however, Oliver Is on
his way to London; and at the close he is
an inmate of Fagin the Jew, and compan-
ion of that free and easy young gen.
tleman, John Dawkins, Commonly
known as the "Artful Dodger,") and a
few other choice but youthful aspirants of
the same school. When the Quarterly
Review criticised the book, it said that Nj.
Dickens had made q great mistake in not
keeping Oliver Twist in the country, in
stead Of taking him to the thieves haunts
in Lendon, which had been described over
and over again. I happened to know
Dickens originally intended to carry
out the promise of his title, "Oliver
or the Parish Boys Progress" and
to trace the life, struggles and success of
what Miss Brandon calls a "elod." He
his purpose; and George Cruik-
shank himself told me why. As a little
bit of literary history, I place it upon the
Round Table.
In London ! was intimate with the
brothers C~ruikshank, Robert and George,
but more particularly with the latter.
Having called upon him one day at his
house lit was then in Mydleton Terrace,
Pentonyille), I had to wait while he was
finishing an etching, for which q printers
boy was waiting. To while away the time,
I gladly complied with his suggestion that
l should look over q portfolio crowded
with etchings, proofs anddrawings, which
upon the sofa. Among these, careless
~ tASN sOBSIucI III . wrap VI DIONA pa
per, was a series Of twenty-five or thirty
drawings, very carefully finished, through
most Of which were carried the now well
known portraits of Fagin, Bill Sykes and
his dog, Nancy, the Arttul Dodger, and
Master Charles Bates-all we'll known to
the readers of "Oliver Twist" There
no mistake about it; and when Cruik.
shank turned round, his work finished, I
said as much. He told me that It had long
benin his mind to showthe life Of aLondon
thief by a series of drawings, engraved
BY himself in which, without q single
line of letter press, the story would be
strikingly and clearly told. dickens"
continued, " dropped In here one day,
Just as you have done, and, while waiting
until l could speak with him, took up
that identical portfolio, and ferreted out
hat bundle of drawings. When he came
that one which represents Fagin in the
cell, he studied it for half an
hour, and told me that he was tempted TO
the whole plot of his story; not to
larry Oliver Twist through adventures in
he country, but to take him up into the
den in London, show what their
ife was, and bring Oliver through it with
tut sin or shame. ! consented to let him
write up to as many Of the designs as he
bought would suit his purpose. And that
vas the way in which Fagin, Sykes and
Nancy were created. Ny drawings sup-
them, rather than their individ-
suggested my drawings"