DICKENS (CHARLES Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People First Series, 2 vol., FIRST EDITION, John Macrone, 1836[DICKENS (CHARLES)]Sketches by "Boz", Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People [First Series], 2 vol., FIRST EDITION, 16 etched plates by George Cruikshank, some foxing and spotting, publisher's dark green leaf-grained cloth, lettered in gilt within decorative shield-shaped design with pendant on spine, pale yellow endpapers, slightly nicked at head and base of spines, minor edge wear, light scratch on lower cover of volume 2, preserved in green morocco-backed solander box [Eckel, pp.11-13; Gimbel A1; Sadleir 609; Smith I:1; Sadleir 699], 8vo, John Macrone, 1836A FINE COPY IN THE ORIGINAL CLOTH OF CHARLES DICKENS'S FIRST BOOK. In December 1833 Dickens's first published literary work appeared in the Monthly Magazine, and in the following year he contributed a series of 'Street Sketches' to first the Morning Chronicle, then the Evening Chronicle, following this with a sequence of articles for Bell's Life in London. These were then published as Sketches by Boz by John Macrone. "Dickens probably owed his introduction to Macrone and Cruikshank to William Harrison Ainsworth who had become a close friend, providing Dickens with his first entre into literary circles. The two-volume edition of Sketches..., for which Dickens specially wrote two non-comic pieces, 'A Visit to Newgate' and 'The Black Veil', was extremely well received... praised for their humour, wit, touches of pathos, and the 'startling fidelity' of their descriptions of London life" (ODNB).Provenance: Ink initials in an early hand on title-pages; Brian Fenwick Smith, bookplate; Sotheby's, 10 July 2012, lot 65.