This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1824.
Events
January – The British periodicals The Children's Friend[1] and The Child's Companion both publish their first issues.
Westminster Review
, is published in London.
February 9 – Because of dire family financial straits, Charles Dickens, who has just turned 12, begins work in a blacking factory in London. On February 23 his father, John Dickens, is committed to the Marshalsea prison as a debtor.[2]
May — "Sketches of the Five American Presidents, and of the Five Presidential Candidates, From the Memoranda of a Traveler," by John Neal, the first work by an American author published in a British literary journal.[4]
John Murray with five of Lord Byron's friends and executors, decide to destroy the manuscript of Byron's Memoirs (which he has been given to publish), because of scandalous details that would damage Byron's reputation. Opposed only by Thomas Moore, the two volumes are dismembered and burnt in the fireplace at the John Murray (publisher)'s office, 50 Albemarle Street in London.[5]
June 21 – The Vagrancy Act in England provides for the prosecution of "every Person wilfully exposing to view, in any Street... or public Place, any obscene Print, Picture, or other indecent Exhibition".
unknown date – Julia Catherine Beckwith's St. Ursula's Convent or, The Nun of Canada; Containing Scenes from Real Life becomes the first novel published in Canada by a native-born Canadian (anonymously).