The Guardian wrote recently about Robert Seymour, a man who killed himself after Charles Dickens let him goes as his illustrator after his Pickwick Papers.
From the story...
The scene on 20 April 1836 was horrific: the artist lay in a welter of gore on the floor of the summerhouse at his London home, his coat and waistcoat burning from the ferocity of the shotgun blast which had killed him.
Now, a century after Robert Seymour's memorial disappeared, the stone commemorating him is to be unveiled at a ceremony in the back garden of 48 Doughty Street, the museum in Charles Dickens' only surviving London home.
Seymour had taken his own life within 24 hours of a last meeting with the author Dickens, after completing the final illustration – named Death of a Clown – for the writer's first novel, the Pickwick Papers. Almost certainly Dickens had told Seymour he was being dropped as the artist for the serial, which when bound together would become his first runaway best seller and launch his career.
2 comments:
Rather a sad story, but interesting nonetheless...
Hi - I found this post a while ago, and I made a note to contact you in 2015. You see, I am the person who found Seymour's tombstone, and I have now written a novel which tells the story of the origins and history of The Pickwick Papers, and Seymour is the main character. The novel is called Death and Mr Pickwick, and it will be published in May by Random House (in the UK) and in June by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (in the USA). I do hope you will take a look at it if you get a chance. Further information can be found at: www.deathandmrpickwick.com where there are links to the publishers' websites, and where I can also be contacted.
Best wishes
Stephen Jarvis
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