On the eve of Charles Dickens' birthday, on February 7 1812, the British Library announced the acquisition of hundreds of unpublished documents from the writer's family, recording the author's frequently tortuous early dealings with his publishers.

Dickens was determined to gain both recognition and proper reward for his work, and was one of the first to fight for a share of copyright. The papers show that he received £12,000 for the serial publication of his last novel, Our Mutual Friend - a huge sum.

The documents are draft agreements and deeds, many annotated with legal queries and memos in Dickens' hand. They include his life insurance, which he extended to cover his first visit to America in 1842, which helped make him a literary star: the insurance stipulated that he must travel no further south than Charleston, South Carolina.

Curator Chris Fletcher described the archive as a vivid insight into the workings of the nineteenth century publishing world.