The extraordinary rapidity with which Dickens rose to popularity is indicated by the advance in the value of his copyrights. He sold the copyright of _Sketches by Boz_ for £150, and before _Pickwick_ was finished in the following year, he found reason to buy it back for no less than £2,000. _Pickwick_, scarcely equalled for broad humour in the English language, was published in monthly parts, and finished in November, 1837. It was _Pickwick_ that led to the first meeting between Dickens and Thackeray; for on the suicide of Seymour, the original illustrator, Thackeray was one of those who offered to execute the sketches. _Oliver Twist_ was begun before _Pickwick_ was finished; and in the same way _Nicholas Nickleby_ overlapped _Oliver_. Thus the stream flowed on for many years; and though towards the close of his life the rate of production was slower, Dickens, like Thackeray, was writing to the last. The life of Dickens was purely literary, and was diversified by few incidents. But he was liable to overstrain, as men of great nervous energy are apt to be, and was consequently forced to allow himself occasional holidays. During one of these, in 1842, he visited America, and wrote, in consequence, the not very wise or generous _American Notes_. This journey bore fruit in _Martin Chuzzlewit_. Two years later he made a journey to Italy, and subsequently he was several times on the continent and once again in America. The influence of the continental journeys can be traced in _A Tale of Two Cities_, though the story is rather due to Carlyle's _French Revolution_ than to the personal observation of Dickens. A more serious interruption than any holiday he ever allowed himself was his indulgence, for so it may be described, in public readings. They increased his wealth, and they gratified the vanity which, in spite of his biographer, was one of the weaknesses of Dickens; but they impaired his literary work, and in all probability they hastened his death. Besides these readings, the nervous strain of which was very great, Dickens encumbered himself with editorial work. He conducted _Household Words_ from its start in 1850; and when it stopped in 1859 he started _All the Year Round_, with which he was connected till his death. Through these various distractions both the quantity and the quality of his original work declined. Probably after _David Copperfield_ he never wrote anything altogether first-rate. His health too gave way under the strain, and he died at the age of 58, on June 9th, 1870.