Samuel Richardson

Born in 1689 near Derby and raised in London, Samuel Richardson trained as a printer and later ran his own successful printing business. He came to fiction relatively late, but his practical life in the book trade gave him a sharp sense of readers, morals, and the power of intimate writing.

Richardson became one of the key early English novelists with Pamela (1740), followed by the monumental Clarissa (1747–48) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753–54). His novels, often told through letters, brought readers close to his characters' inner lives and helped make the novel a major literary form.

He died in 1761, but his influence lasted far beyond his own century. Later writers admired both his psychological depth and the emotional intensity of his storytelling, even when they argued with his moral seriousness.