ABSTRACT
Charles Dickens's fame was ensured by a portrait proliferation that made him the visible embodiment of authorship at the end of the nineteenth century. Dickens's own desire to change the status and image of the writer from that of Grub Street hack to one worthy of respect and admiration reflects an inculcation of the value of the author into English culture. The images Dickens controlled, particularly his photographic portraits, tend to show a practical and businesslike air. Dickens's early understanding of the necessity for the writer to create and maintain a visible presence in society was widely shared by the end of the nineteenth century. Literary 'heroism' was also a decidedly male affair, with Dickens in the lead followed by Browning. Portraits showing Dickens posed in the act of writing speak more of, at times, mark-making than they do of an iconography of writerly attributes.
