From 1835 until 1838, Ainsworth and Dickens were close friends and often travelled together. "Rookwood" was published in multiple editions, with a fourth edition in 1836 including illustrations by Cruikshank, which started the working relationship between the two. In 1835, Ainsworth began writing another novel, called "Crichton". He devoted much of his time to it to the point of not having time for many of his literary friends. Its publication was temporarily delayed while Ainsworth was searching for an illustrator, with Thackeray being a possible choice. However, Ainsworth felt the illustrations were unsatisfactory, so he switched to Daniel Maclise, who was also later dropped. Coinciding with the search for an illustrator and hurrying to complete the novel, Ainsworth was asked to write for the magazine "The Lions of London", but could not find the time to work on both projects and so attempted to finish the novel. The situation changed after Macrone, the original intended publisher, died. Ainsworth turned to Bentley as a publisher. Ainsworth eventually published his third novel in 1837. A fifth edition of "Rookwood" appeared in 1837, and its success encouraged Ainsworth to work on another novel about a famous outlaw, the story of Jack Sheppard.