Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi

Dickens first saw Joseph Grimaldi, a popular clown and comedian actor, when he was about 7 years old and recalled that ‘I clapped my hands with great precocity’ at his humour. When Grimaldi died in 1837 Dickens, then writing as ‘Boz’, agreed to 'improve' Grimaldi's poorly written biography.

Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, Vol. II (First edition), 1838
[lib] 6143 © Charles Dickens Museum

Image taken by Lewis Bush, 2025. This image is provided under Creative Commons License 4.0 until 1 April 2031, made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund.