Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson, the celebrated author of "Pamela" and "Clarissa," was born near Derby but raised in London, where in he was apprenticed to a stationer before going into business as a printer in 1719. He may have attended Merchant Taylors' School or Christ's Hospital, though no records survive. His business prospered and his fame as a novelist provided entry into polite society; among his large circle of friends were Hester Mulso Chapone, Samuel Johnson; Joseph Spence was one of the many who were invited to comment upon Clarissa-in-progress.

TEXT RECORDS:

1750Letter to Miss Highmore, 22 June, 1750.

PUBLICATIONS:

The apprentice's vade mecum. 1733.
A seasonable examination of the pleas and pretensions of ... play houses. 1735.
Aesop's fables. 1739.
The negotiations of Sir Thomas Roe [ed. Richardson]. 1740.
Pamela: or virtue rewarded. 2 vols, 1740.
Letters written to and for particular friends. 1741.
A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain [Defoe, supplemented by Richardson]. 4 vols, 1742.
Clarissa: or the history of a young lady. 7 vols, 1747-48.
The history of Sir Charles Grandison. 7 vols, 1754.
The case of Samuel Richardson of London, printer. 1753.
Letter to a lady. 1754.
Answer to a letter from a friend. 1754.
An address to the public. 1754.
A collection of the moral and instructive sentiments contained in the histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison. 1755.
The paths of virtue delineated. 1756.
Correspondence of Richardson, ed. Barbauld. 6 vols, 1804.
Selected letters, ed. John Caroll. 1964.
The Richardson-Stinstra correspondence, ed. William C. Slattery. 1969.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

no formal education

artisan
book trade
novelist

Christian's Magazine

Hester Mulso Chapone
Mary Delaney
Rev. John Duncombe
Susanna Duncombe
William Duncombe
Colley Cibber
Thomas Edwards
Sarah Fielding
Thomas Gent
James Harris
Rev. James Hervey
Aaron Hill
Samuel Johnson
George Lyttelton
Hannah More
Elizabeth Pennington
Tobias Smollett
Rev. Joseph Spence
Rev. John Upton
William Warburton
Edward Young

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

"Life and Writings of Richardson" Westminster Magazine 3 (May 1775) 258-60 [portrait]; "Life and Writings of Samuel Richardson" Weekly Magazine or Edinburgh Amusement 28 (22 June 1775) 385-87; "Memoirs of Richardson" Universal Magazine 78 (January-February 1786) 17-21, 73-77 [portrait]; "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. Samuel Richardson" Hibernian Magazine (February-March 1786) 65-68, 115-18; "On Richardson" American Museum 12 (July-August 1792) 81-83, 135-36; Lounger's Common-Place Book (1792; 1796) 2:122-24; "Richardson" Monthly Magazine 4 (July-August 1797) 47-48, 127; "Richardson and Clarissa" Monthly Magazine and American Review [New York] 3 (August, November 1800) 163-67, 321-23; "Richardson" New England Quarterly Magazine [Boston] (October-December 1802) 84-86; Memoir in Correspondence, ed. Barbauld (1804); Francis Jeffrey, "Richardson" Edinburgh Review 5 (1804); "Samuel Richardson" Port Folio [Philadelphia] 5 (13 parts, 19 January-27 April 1805); "Sketch of Samuel Richardson" Literary Magazine and American Register [Philadelphia] 4 (July 1805) 53-55; "Original Letters of Samuel Richardson" in European Magazine 53-55 (1808-09); Nathan Drake, Essays illustrative of the Rambler (1810) 2:47-73; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); correspondence of Richardson and Edward Young in Monthly Magazine 36-46 (1813-18); letters between Smollett and Richardson, Monthly Magazine 48 (November 1819) 326-28; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Biographical Magazine 1 (1829) [portrait]; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Mary Russell Mitford, "Samuel Richardson" in Recollections (1852) 411-23; Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Mrs. Andrew Lang, "Morals and Manners in Richardson" National Review 14 (1889); William C. Ward, "Samuel Richardson" Gentleman's Magazine NS 44 (1890); Austin Dobson, "Richardson at Home" in Eighteenth-Century Vignettes (1892-96); Clara Linklater Thomson, Samuel Richardson, a Biographical and Critical Study (1900); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Alan D. McKillop, Samuel Richardson, Printer and Novelist (1936); Francesco Cordasco, Richardson: A List of Critical Studies 1896-1946 (1948); T. C. D. Eaves and B. D. Kimpel, Samuel Richardson, a Biography (1971); Butt, OHEL (1979).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Samuel Richardson:

1.	1739  Aaron Hill to Alexander Pope, 21 February 1739; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 10:77.
2.	1740  Aaron Hill, "To the unknown Author of the beautiful new Piece, call'd Pamela" 1740; Hill, Works (1753-54) 3:348-50.
3.	1741  Anonymous, "Remarks on Pamela. By a Prude" London Magazine 10 (May 1741) 250-51.
4.	1741  Anonymous, "Advice to Booksellers (after reading Pamela)" Gentleman's Magazine 11 (April 1741) 214.
5.	1741 ca.  Josiah Relph, "Wrote after reading Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded" 1741 ca.; Relph, Miscellany of Poems (1747) 111-13.
6.	1745  Belinda, "To the Author of Pamela" Gentleman's Magazine 15 (February 1745) 104.
7.	1747  Elizabeth Teft, "To the Unjust Author of Pamela in High Life" Orinthia's Miscellanies: or a Compleat Collection of Poems (1747) 15-16.
8.	1747  James Hervey to Samuel Richardson, 3 November 1747; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 2:180-82.
9.	1748  Joseph Spence to Samuel Richardson, 21 January 1748; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 2:319-27.
10.	1750  William Shenstone to Richard Jago, 15 March 1750; Works (1769) 3:188.
11.	1750  Granticola, "An Extempore Epigram on Clarissa" Magazine of Magazines 1 (November 1750) 456.
12.	1751  Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 8 May 1751; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 3:22-23.
13.	1752  Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 20 March 1752; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 3:41-48.
14.	1752  James Harris to Samuel Richardson, 19 January 1752; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 1:162-63.
15.	1754  Anna Williams, "Verses to Mr. Richardson, on his History of Charles Grandison" Scots Magazine 16 (January 1754) 17.
16.	1755  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to the Countess of Bute, 20 October 1755; Letters, ed. W. Moy Thomas (1861) 2:285-91.
17.	1755 ca.  Hester Mulso Chapone, "To Health" 1755 ca; Chapone, Works (1807) 4:152-54.
18.	1756  John Duncombe, "To the Author of Clarissa" 1756; Bell's Fugitive Verse (1789-97) 6:129.
19.	1758  William Hawkins of Oxford, in "Essay on Genius" Dramatic and other Poems (1758) 244-45.
20.	1759  James Beattie to John Ogilvie, 20 August 1759; William Forbes, Life and Writings of James Beattie (1806) 1:39-40.
21.	1761  Elizabeth Carter, "Epitaph on Richardson" 1761; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 3:432.
22.	1761  John Hawkesworth, "On Mr. Richardson" General Evening Post (12 August 1790).
23.	1764  Horace Walpole to Horace Mann, 20 December 1764; Letters, ed. Cunningham (1906) 4:305-06.
24.	1770 ca.  Bennet Langton, 1770 ca.; in Russell, Book of Authors (1860) 188.
25.	1772  Samuel Johnson, 1772; Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791); ed. G. B. Hill (1891) 2:200-01.
26.	1772  Anonymous, in "Catalogue of the most celebrated Writers" Letters concerning the present State of England (1772) 393-94.
27.	1776  D. Al-n-by, "Extempore. On seeing a Lady weep at reading Clarissa" Westminster Magazine 4 (September 1776) 497.
28.	1779  C. Jackson, "Lines written on reading a Passage descriptive of the Death of Clarissa" Hibernian Magazine (April 1779) 248.
29.	1782  Hannah More, in "Sensibility" Sacred Dramas (1782) 283.
30.	1783  Mr. Jackson of Dublin, "Lines written in Richardson's Clarissa" European Magazine 3 (June 1783) 473.
31.	1787  Anna Seward to William Newton, the Peak Minstrel, 10 May 1787; Letters, ed. Scott (1811) 1:293.
32.	1788  Anonymous, "Epitaph on Samuel Richardson" European Magazine 14 (November 1788) 375.
33.	1793  Edmond Malone, 1793 ca.; Maloniana, in Sir James Prior, Life of Edmond Malone (1860) 439.
34.	1797  William Godwin, in "Of Choice in Reading" The Enquirer (1797) 134-35.
35.	1804  Andrew Caldwell to Thomas Percy, 18 September 1804; Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58) 8:53.
36.	1807  Percival Stockdale, in Lectures on the truly eminent English Poets (1807) 1:181-89.
37.	1808  George Gregory, in Letters on Literature, Taste, and Composition (1808) 2:70-71.
38.	1809  Percival Stockdale, in Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Percival Stockdale (1809) 1:93-94.
39.	1809  Nathan Drake, in Essays Illustrative of the Rambler (1809-10) 2:47-73.
40.	1812  Robert Southey to Miss Barker, 4 November 1812; Selections from the Letters, ed. Warter (1856) 2:297.
41.	1821  Lord Byron, Diary, 27 February 1821; Letters and Journals, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (1898-1901) 5:148-49.
42.	1821  Mary Leadbeater to George Crabbe, 12 April 1821; Leadbeater Papers (1862) 2:374.
43.	1826  Anne Grant to Mrs. Hook, 13 February 1826; Grant, Memoir and Correspondence (1844) 3:70.
44.	1848  Leigh Hunt, in The Town (1848) 90.
45.	1850  Thomas Babington Macaulay, Diary entry; 15 April 1850; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 3:440.
46.	1852  Mary Russell Mitford, Letters of Authors. Samuel Richardson" Recollections of a Literary Life; or Books, Places, and People (1852) 411-23.
47.	1894  Austin Dobson, in "Richardson at Home," Eighteenth-Century Vignettes 2 (1894; 1937) 2:69-70.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Samuel Richardson:

1.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 26:191-97.
2.	1823  Walter Scott, "Samuel Richardson" 1823; Scott, Miscellaneous Prose Works (1829) 3:7-57.
3.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:292-95.
4.	1834  G. G. Cunningham, in Memoirs of Illustrious Englishmen (1834-37) 5:239-43.
5.	1842  C. H. Timperley, in Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (1842) 2:707-08.
6.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:160-61.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1740  Aaron Hill:   Samuel Richardson, "Epigram" 1740; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 1:59n.
2.	1748  Aaron Hill:   Samuel Richardson to Aaron Hill, 27 October 1748; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 1:118-24.
3.	1750  Susanna Duncombe:   Samuel Richardson to Susanna Duncombe, 22 June 1750; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 2:237-50.
4.	1750  Thomas Edwards:   Samuel Richardson to Susanna Duncombe, 1750; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 2:245.
5.	1750  Henry Fielding:   Samuel Richardson to Thomas Edwards, 21 February 1752; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 3:33-34.
6.	1750  George Jeffreys:   Samuel Richardson to Susanna Duncombe, 22 June 1750; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 2:241-42.
7.	1751  Hester Mulso Chapone:   Samuel Richardson to Hester Mulso Chapone, 27 July 1751; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 3:171-75.
8.	1751  Thomas Edwards:   Samuel Richardson to Thomas Edwards, 30 December 1751; Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ed. Barbauld (1804) 3:27-29.