Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens! As you know by now, if you've Googled anything today, it's the author's birthday—he was born 200 years ago, across the pond in England. But he has plenty of New York ties. Dickens first came here in 1842, spending a month in the city giving lectures, as well as raising support for copyright laws. On Valentine's Day that year "a Boz Ball was held in his honor at the Park Theater, with 3,000 guests. Among the neighborhoods he visited were Five Points, Wall Street, and The Bowery," he even peeked his into The Tombs! He took notes of his American travels, and wrote of New York at night: more ›

Up for auction this week is a dog collar owned by "Tale of Two Cities" author Charles Dickens. The Victorian-era canine ID, fashioned from leather and brass, and engraved in loopy script with the writer’s name and address, is expected to fetch between $4,000 and $6,000 at Bonham New York’s 28th annual dog art sale on Tuesday. (Bullseye was the name of the villain's dog in "Oliver Twist" but it's unclear what the writer named his non-fictional dog.) Last year an ivory and gold toothpick that belonged to the author went for $9,150, according to the AP, but that had Dickens’s spit on it, not just dog slobber. Other Dickens ephemera lives at the NYPL. more ›

Once we saw Charles Dickens' old cat's paw mounted to a letter opener at the New York Public Library... we knew the author probably had a bevy or quirky items scattered about the world in collector's homes. And indeed, one is headed to the auction today. more ›

ART: papermag.com celebrates it's 10th year with Manhattan! We recently had a chance to stop by this group exhibition which features over 75 Big Apple-based artists from past to present, and have never enjoyed a gallery show more (of course, it was the opening and they were passing out champagne with Red Bull in it.) The loose theme of the show is "People of New York." To the right is the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Nick Zinner's untitled work, taken in Brooklyn in 2000. more ›

There's nothing like a library to awaken our love of reading. Tomorrow night (11/30), our beautiful Main Branch of the New York Public Library (Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street) is hosting a conversation between novelist Alice Walker and Times critic Margo Jefferson. The panel costs $15 and starts at 7:30. more ›