Cirrus@Austlit

Boz Jun. was purported to be a 'young man, author of several productions which have issued from the Colonial press'.

According to the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser issue of 9 October 1838, the author was to publish a series 'after the style of Boz' through subscription. The work was to be entitled "The Peregrinations of Tobias Twichenham [sic.], Esq."' (2)

The 13 November 1838 issue of the Sydney Gazette acknowledges 'the receipt of the first number of a work styled:- A Faithful History of the Life and Adventures, and Public and Private Career of Tobias Twickenham Esquire ... edited by Boz Jun...' (2)

According to advertisements in the Australian and Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser newspapers in November and December 1838, two numbers of the work were published by James Tegg on the 1 November and 1 December 1838. The Australian newspaper of 26 January 1839 (3) advertised a third number of the work but with no details on publisher, pagination or price.

A short review of the first two numbers of the work in the Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser on 17 December 1838 (2) notes that the 'author succeeds better in this work ... than in his former' indicating that the identity of the author was known.

'Rolf Boldrewood' in a biographical piece on the 'life-careers of my school-comrades' published in his selected work In Bad Company and Other Stories provides evidence that 'Boz Jun.' was James Martin. 'Boldrewood' writes: 'The first numbers of Pickwick appearing about that time, in green covers, if I mistake not, Martin commenced a tale, embodying a similar style of incident. I forget the title now, but some numbers were printed. It was a boy's audacious imitation, but even at this distance of time I recall the undoubted ability of his performance. Part of the action was laid in London ...' (360).

Elizabeth Webby in 'English Literature in Early Australia: 1830-1839', published in Southerly March 1976, cites a 'Literary Notice' published in the Colonist newspaper of 5 January 1839. The 'Notice' announces that 'the Australian Pickwick, which was lately started by Mr. Martin, of the Sketch Book, is about to be resumed.' The reason for the delay 'was the protracted indisposition of the author, who has been suffering from a severe attack of catarrh or influenza...' There was an influenza epidemic in Sydney in the last few months of 1838.

Source: Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (9 October 1838): 2; Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (13 November 1838): 2; Australian (6 November 1838): 1 Australian (1 December 1838): 3; Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser (17 December 1838): 2; Australian (26 January 1839): 3; 'Rolf Boldrewood'. 'My School Days'. In Bad Company and Other Stories (London: Macmillan and Co., 1901): 360; 'Literary Notice'. The Colonist (5 January 1829): 2; Webby, Elizabeth. 'English Literature in Early Australia: 1830-1839'. Southerly, Vol. 36, No. 1, (March 1976): 73-87; Grainger, Elena. Martin of Martin Place (Sydney: Alpha Books, 1970).