Frederick Dickinson was born June 17, 1880 in England and was brought to America by his parents. In 1881 they settled in Chicago.

Carl Sandburg met Dickinson while both were students at Lombard College in the late 1890s. Dickinson was good looking and had excellent manners. He was very good at meeting and persuading people. He was determined to become an attorney. On the other hand, Sandburg was still trying to figure out how to become a writer.

In the summer of 1899 Dickinson sold Underwood and Underwood stereoscopic pictures for $2 a dozen in Beatrice, Nebraska. He made $200 (equal to more than $5,740 in today's money), to be used for his college expenses. The next year, he introduced Carl to the opportunity. Carl was assigned Bureau County as his selling territory. By the end of the summer, he had earned $100.

In 1900 Dickinson won the Swan Oratorical Prize at Lombard. His topic was the Scottish poet Robert Burns. That was the year Sandburg entered the contest and lost because of his poor memory.

Dickinson and Sandburg sold stereoscopes and the pictures to go with them during the summer of 1901 in Michigan. They could work two or three days a week and earn enough money to support themselves, and to defray their anticipated college expenses. The rest of the time, they went sightseeing, relaxed and argued politics.

They were opposites in politics. Dickinson was of a conservative mind. Sandburg observed the world from another point of view. They enjoyed arguing and the process helped educate both of them without convincing either one.

In the fall they returned to Lombard. The previous spring, Dickinson had campaigned to elect Sandburg as editor of the college newspaper, The Lombard Review.

The school's president, Charles Nash, asked them to edit a college yearbook. It was to honor the fifty-year anniversary of the founding of Lombard. They learned a great deal about editing and printing the publication. They were appreciative of the opportunity they had been given.

They again sold Underwood and Underwood stereoscopic views in New Jersey in 1903. By that time Dickinson was attending the University of Michigan law school.

By 1910, Dickinson was living in Evanston, Illinois. He had been married to Lora Thompson and they had a daughter, Dorothy. He was an attorney in general practice. Ten years later, they owned their own home and had a son, Leon. According to the 1930 census, they owned a home worth $20,000 (equal to $287,000 in today's money). He was also the city attorney.

At the time of Clara Sandburg's death in 1926, Fred wrote a letter of condolence to Carl in which he said: “As some measure of consolation may there come to you at this time a realization that your mother's latter years have been made more enjoyable and happy by virtue of the distinctions and honors you have attained.”

Fred Dickinson died September 27, 1941.