Office-staff Memories

Abstract

‘Yes; I did shorthand work for Mr. Dickens for eighteen months. I did not take dictations for any one of his novels-only his fugitive pieces.¹ He dictated to me most of his articles in All the Tear Round. He was a very kind man to those under him. He always treated me very well indeed. Most people seem to think Dickens was a ready writer. This was by no means the case. He used to come into his office in St. Catherine-street about eight o’clock in the morning and begin dictating. He would walk up and down the floor several times after dictating a sentence or a paragraph, and ask me to read it. I would do so, and he would, in nine cases out of ten, order me to strike out certain words and insert others. He was generally tired out at eleven o’clock and went down to his club on the Strand. A very singular thing was that he never dictated the closing paragraphs of his story. He always finished it himself. I used to look in the paper for it, and find that he had changed it very greatly from what he had dictated to me.