The Dickens Society is a non-profit organization founded on 29 December 1970 by 40 participants at the Modern Language Association Convention in New York City.
"[4] To increase engagement from its global membership in both hemispheres, the Dickens Society alternates its symposium location between various institutions and major cities in North America or Europe.
"[7] As Nancy Aycock Metz states, "The society still honors many of the original goals – an annual MLA seminar, transatlantic scholarly exchanges, prizes and stipends to support the work of young professionals.
First published in 1970,[10] and edited by Robert Patten, the journal's title was changed to Dickens Quarterly in March 1984.
[11] Dickens Quarterly's long-time general editor was the late scholar David Paroissien, who published a detailed retrospect about the organization and journal's history in 1996[4] and again in 2010.