|
Famous People
|
|
 |
Charles Dickens
English
author Charles John Huffman Dickens was born
in Portsmouth, England, on February 7, 1812.
His family moved several times before
settling in Camden, London, where he left
school and worked in a shoe polish factory.
He returned to school before working as a
junior clerk in a law firm. He also began to
visit the theatre, which became one of his
passions. Towards the end of 1828, Dickens
started working as a freelance reporter and,
after brief thoughts of becoming an actor,
he began his writing career. His first story
‘A Dinner at Poplar Walk’ was sent to
London’s ‘Monthly Magazine’ in 1833, and a
job offer from his uncle led him to become a
political journalist. Dickens completed ‘The
Pickwick Papers’ and began ‘Oliver Twist’ in
1836, and, in the same year, he became the
editor of Bentley’s Miscellany. He married
Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of the
Evening Chronicle’s Editor, in 1838 and had
ten children. Many of his characters were
based on real people and his most famous
stories included, David Copperfield, Oliver
Twist, Great Expectations and A Christmas
Carol. Dickens famously visited the steam
powered iron clad warship
HMS Warrior
while it was at Greenhithe in 1861. Charles Dickens died in Rochester,
Kent, on June 9, 1870, following a stroke. |
 |
Robert Burns
Scottish
Poet and lyricist Robert Burns is generally
seen as Scotland’s national poet, and is
famous for works such as ‘Auld Lang Syne’
and ‘Tam O’Shanter’. It was the nickname of
a character in ‘Tam O’Shanter’ that was used
to name the famous clipper
Cutty Sark.
Burns was born on January 25, 1759, in
Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland, and spent his
early years living an impoverished life
labouring hard on his father’s farm. The
majority of his education came from home
tutoring by his father, although he did
attend school for a short while. He made his
first attempt to write a poem at the age of
fifteen, and wrote two songs a year later.
Encouraged to become a poet by his friend
Captain Richard Brown, Burns wrote more
songs and poems in a commonplace book,
however he continued to work on the
unsuccessful farm. With an offer of work as
a bookkeeper in Jamaica, Burns was
encouraged to publish his poems to raise the
fare. ‘Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish
Dialect’ was published on July 31, 1786, and
became an instant success. Consequently he
abandoned his plans to travel to Jamaica.
Robert Burns married Jean Armour in 1788 and
had nine children with her, of which only
three lived to become adults. Roberts Burns
died on July 21, 1796, in Dumfries,
Scotland. |
|
|
|