author
Thomas Day
1748–1789
Best known for The History of Sandford and Merton, he was an English writer whose books mixed storytelling with big ideas about education, society, and moral character. His life was as striking as his work: he was also a lawyer, political pamphleteer, and outspoken opponent of slavery.
2 Audiobooks
The History of Sandford and Merton
by Thomas Day
The History of Little Jack, a Foundling
by Thomas Day
About the author
Born in London on June 22, 1748, Thomas Day became known in late eighteenth-century Britain as a writer, lawyer, and reform-minded thinker. He studied at Charterhouse and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, trained for the law, and moved in intellectual circles influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
He is remembered above all for The History of Sandford and Merton (published 1783–1789), a hugely influential children's book that promoted plain living, self-discipline, and educational ideals drawn from Rousseau. Day also wrote poetry and political works, including antislavery writings, and he took strong public positions on the issues of his time.
His reputation today is complicated. Alongside his idealism and abolitionist activism, biographers also note unsettling episodes in his personal life, especially his attempts to shape young girls according to his theories of education and marriage. He died on September 28, 1789, but remains a vivid and often debated figure in the history of children's literature and social reform.