Samuel+Richardson

Born to a London joiner near Derbyshire in 1689, Samuel Richardson was an eighteenth century English novelist and printer. He is best known for his creation and use of the epistolary novel, a technique that expanded the dramatic possibilities of writing in letter form.

Richardson's three major novels were: //1. Pamela// (1740) //2. Clarissa// (1748) //3. The History of Sir Charles Grandison// (1753)

Richardson was well over fifty years old when he wrote //Pamela//, but little of his first fifty years is known. At best, he received common school-learning and was bound apprentice to a London printer named John Wilde. After completing his seven-year apprenticeship, Richardson associated himself with the Leakes family and took over their presses when he set up his own printing business in 1721. He married Martha Wilde, the daughter of his master, and together they had six children.

Sadly, all of the offspring from Richardson's first marriage died in either infancy or childhood. He remarried in 1733, making Elizabeth Leaked his second wife. Richardson had four daughters with her who lived to adulthood;nonetheless, with no male heir to continue running the printing business, his print shop slowly ran down.

Once Richardson was a well-established compositor and corrector of the printing press, two booksellers urged him to compile a volume of model letters for unskilled letter writers. Naturally, he became infatuated with the project, and a small sequence of letters pivoted his literary career.

Richardson was hardworking and successful in his professional life, inducing his novels to become enormously popular in their day. Both his emphasis on detail and his psychological insights into women have earned him a prominent place among English novelists. In fact, Richardson's //Pamela// is often credited with being the first English novel.

He died of a severe stroke in 1761 and was buried near his first wife in St. Bride's Church of London.

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