Portal:Literature/Biography archive/2007, Week 34

Samuel Richardson (August 19, 1689 – July 4, 1761) was a major English, 18th century writer best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753).

Richardson had been an established printer and publisher for most of his life when, at the age of 51, he wrote his first novel &mdash; and immediately became one of the most popular and admired writers of his time.