(circa August 19th, 1689 — July 4th, 1761)

Samuel Richardson was an English novelist and printer. Richardson is best known for his epistolary novels Clarissa: Or The History of a Young Lady, Pamela; Or, Virtue Rewarded, and The History of Sir Charles Grandison.

Richardson was apprenticed to a printer and eventually became a printer himself. He was a prolific publisher and worked periodically with London bookshops. At the age of 51, he wrote his first novel: Pamela; Or, Virtue Rewarded.

Richardson was an instant literary success. In the last twenty years of his life, he wrote five novels and: Pamela, a sequel to Pamela, Clarissa, a novel-length addition to Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison. He also wrote several supplemental works and instructional pieces, as well as an unfinished novel fragment.

He was known to revise his works heavily after publication, and all of his novels have multiple editions with various revisions. All of his books sold very well and many were translated into foreign languages. Pamela is sometimes considered the first modern English novel. He was also in part responsible for the popularization of the epistolary novel.

Richardson had two wives and ten children — only four of which survived to adulthood. His surviving children were all daughters. His six sons, most of whom were named ‘Samuel’, all perished in infancy.