Friends of the Dickens Forum

     Here is word from Phiz's son reaching back to early *Pickwick* 
days.  it
is Valerie Lester <[log in to unmask]> who is our source:  (pjm)
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Dear Friends of the Dickens Forum,

Here’s another little story about the first appearance of Sam Weller. Edgar
Browne, Phiz’s son, writes in his book, Phiz and Dickens: “Some years ago,
one pouring wet day, I took refuge in a little curiosity shop near Leicester
Square. The proprietor, partly to pass the time, and partly to magnify himself
a little, told me that he was a kind of literary character having stitched the
first numbers of Pickwick, which he considered a failure, till the fourth
number; then the sales went up with such a bound that he had to employ hands
to carry out his contract. ‘It was Sam Weller that did it,’ he said; then
after a pause, ‘and the illustrations.’”

So, Phiz and Sam Weller burst on the scene together in Part IV — and together
they caught the public’s fancy.

Valerie Browne Lester