While he was described as social and cultured, with his home the center of lively gatherings, including artists and writers, there were rumors of alcoholism.

[1] Charles Dickens's pen name, 'Boz', was actually taken from his youngest brother's family nickname 'Moses', given to him in honour of one of the brothers in The Vicar of Wakefield (one of the most widely read novels in the early 19th century), which when playfully pronounced through the nose became corrupted as 'Boses', and later shortened to 'Boz' – pronounced with a long vowel 'o' through the nose.

[2] In 1844, Charles Dickens wrote to Chapman & Co., a shipping merchant, trying to obtain a position for Augustus, saying "I have a young brother recently come up from a good school at Exeter, and now living, with his father, at Greenwich...He is quick and clever: has never given trouble to anybody: and has been well brought up.

[4][5][6] Augustus Dickens's presence in America was first recorded in February 1855 when he was listed as the editor of the newly-launched Lee County Times in Amboy, Illinois.

[7] On 4 June 1857, he placed an advert in the same paper, by then renamed The Amboy Times, announcing the opening of his People's Cheap Store.

[3] It is possible that Augustus returned to England for about a year between these two events, as he is reported to have joined the Freemasons in London, being initiated into Universal Lodge No.212 on 23 November 1855, and was present at two further meetings on 28 December 1855 and 25 January 1856.

But his ready humor, his brilliant conversation, made him the life of whatever company he happened to be in, and he was probably the most popular man in the land office.

His manners were most polished and he gave the impression of having had a splendid education... their house was the frequent gathering place of a coterie of people of refinement and culture and of musicians...of great ability.