He’s regarded as the quintessential Victorian-era author and is credited with creating the blueprint of modern Christmas celebrations. Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in Portsmouth, England, and at the young age of 11 took on a factory job to help his family get by. It would prove to be a pivotal time for Dickens, shaping his view of the working class and many of his most famous works, including David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. Both of these books, along with the rest of Dickens’ novels, were initially published in affordable monthly installments, making his literature accessible to all classes.

Dickens’ compassion for society’s most vulnerable is a defining and enduring characteristic of his work. In the famous A Christmas Carol (1843), he highlighted wealth gaps and the struggles of the working class. Along with coining words and phrases still in use today, Dickens wrote vivid portrayals of societal inequalities that led to the modern descriptor “Dickensian.” The prolific author penned 15 novels, several novellas, and hundreds more articles and stories in his life. He worked until his death in 1870 at age 58.