49 Facts About Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and The History of Sir Charles Grandison.

Samuel Richardson printed almost 500 works, including journals and magazines, working periodically with the London bookseller Andrew Millar.

Samuel Richardson lost her along with their six children, but remarried and had six more children, of which four daughters reached adulthood, leaving no male heirs to continue the print shop.

At Law's request, Samuel Richardson printed some poems by John Byrom.

Samuel Richardson's mother, according to Richardson, "was a good woman, of a family not ungenteel; but whose father and mother died in her infancy, within half-an-hour of each other, in the London pestilence of 1665".

In describing his father's occupation, Richardson stated that "he was a good draughtsman and understood architecture", and it was suggested by Samuel Richardson's son-in-law that the senior Richardson was a cabinetmaker and an exporter of mahogany while working at Aldersgate-street.

One such letter, written when Samuel Richardson was almost 11, was directed to a woman in her 50s who was in the habit of constantly criticizing others.

Samuel Richardson continued to explain that he did not fully understand females until writing Clarissa, and these letters were only a beginning.

The elder Samuel Richardson originally wanted his son to become a clergyman, but he was not able to afford the education that the younger Samuel Richardson would require, so he let his son pick his own profession.

Samuel Richardson selected the profession of printing because he hoped to "gratify a thirst for reading, which, in after years, he disclaimed".

At the age of 17, in 1706, Samuel Richardson was bound in seven-year apprenticeship under John Wilde as a printer.

Samuel Richardson decided to devote himself completely to his apprenticeship, and he worked his way up to a position as a compositor and a corrector of the shop's printing press.

In 1713, Samuel Richardson left Wilde to become "Overseer and Corrector of a Printing-Office".

In 1719, Samuel Richardson was able to take his freedom from being an apprentice and was able to afford to set up his own printing shop, which he did after he moved near the Salisbury Court district close to Fleet Street.

The match was "prompted mainly by prudential considerations", although Samuel Richardson would claim later that there was a strong love-affair between Martha and him.

Samuel Richardson soon brought her to live with him in the printing shop that served as his home.

However, Samuel Richardson's name was not on the publication, and he was able to escape any of the negative fallout, although it is possible that Samuel Richardson participated in the papers as far as actually writing one himself.

In 1724, Samuel Richardson befriended Thomas Gent, Henry Woodfall, and Arthur Onslow, the latter of those would become the Speaker of the House of Commons.

Samuel Richardson married Elizabeth Leake, whose father was a printer, and the two moved into another house on Blue Ball Court.

However, Elizabeth and his daughter were not the only ones living with him because Samuel Richardson allowed five of his apprentices to lodge in his home.

In 1733, Samuel Richardson was granted a contract with the House of Commons, with help from Onslow, to print the Journals of the House.

The manual targets the apprentice as the focal point for the moral improvement of society, not because he is most susceptible to vice, but because, Samuel Richardson suggests, he is more responsive to moral improvement than his social betters.

Work continued to improve, and Samuel Richardson printed the Daily Journal between 1736 and 1737, and the Daily Gazetteer in 1738.

In 1739, Samuel Richardson was asked by his friends Charles Rivington and John Osborn to write "a little volume of Letters, in a common style, on such subjects as might be of use to those country readers, who were unable to indite for themselves".

Later that year, Samuel Richardson printed Rivington and Osborn's book which inspired Pamela under the title of Letters written to and for particular Friends, on the most important Occasions.

The book contained many anecdotes and lessons on how to live, but Samuel Richardson did not care for the work and it was never expanded even though it went into six editions during his life.

Samuel Richardson went so far as to tell a friend, "This volume of letters is not worthy of your perusal" because they were "intended for the lower classes of people".

The public's interest in the characters was waning, and this was only furthered by Samuel Richardson's focusing on Pamela discussing morality, literature, and philosophy.

In particular, Samuel Richardson asked Hill if he could help shorten the chapters because Samuel Richardson was worried about the length of the novel.

Between 1744 and 1746, Samuel Richardson tried to find readers who could help him shorten the work, but his readers wanted to keep the work in its entirety.

Samuel Richardson did not devote all of his time just to working on his new novel, but was busy printing various works for other authors that he knew.

Samuel Richardson filled his few further years with smaller works for his friends until 1748, when Richardson started helping Sarah Fielding and her friend Jane Collier to write novels.

Samuel Richardson had a sparse diet that consisted mostly of vegetables and drinking vast amounts of water, and was not robust enough to prevent the effects of being bled upon the advice of various doctors throughout his life.

Samuel Richardson was known for "vague 'startings' and 'paroxysms'", along with experiencing tremors.

Samuel Richardson once wrote to a friend that "my nervous disorders will permit me to write with more impunity than to read" and that writing allowed him a "freedom he could find nowhere else".

However, the final three volumes were delayed, and many of the readers began to "anticipate" the concluding story and some demanded that Samuel Richardson write a happy ending.

Samuel Richardson immediately fired those he suspected of giving the printers advanced copies of Grandison and relied on multiple London printing firms to help him produce an authentic edition before the pirated version was sold.

Samuel Richardson did not like any of the topics, and chose to spend all of his time composing letters to his friends and associates.

The only major work that Samuel Richardson would write would be A Collection of the Moral and Instruction Sentiments, Maxims, Cautions, and Reflexions, contained in the Histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison.

Poor Mr Samuel Richardson was seized on Sunday evening with a most severe paralytic stroke.

Samuel Richardson wanted to keep the press in his family, but after the death of his four sons and a nephew, his printing press would be left in his will to his only surviving male heir, a second nephew.

Samuel Richardson's fears proved well-founded, for after his death the press stopped producing quality works and eventually stopped printing altogether.

Samuel Richardson owned copyrights to most of his works, and these were sold after his death, in twenty-fourth share issues, with shares in Clarissa bringing in 25 pounds each and those for Grandison bringing in 20 pounds each.

Samuel Richardson was a skilled letter writer and his talent traces back to his childhood.

Samuel Richardson had a "faith" in the act of letter writing, and believed that letters could be used to accurately portray character traits.

Samuel Richardson quickly adopted the epistolary novel form, which granted him "the tools, the space, and the freedom to develop distinctly different characters speaking directly to the reader".

Samuel Richardson structured his epistolary work to offer multiple perspectives so readers could interpret the text in varied ways.

The novel was an experiment, but it allowed Samuel Richardson to create a complex heroine through a series of her letters.

When Samuel Richardson wrote Clarissa, he had more experience in the form and expanded the letter writing to four different correspondents, which created a complex system of characters encouraging each other to grow and develop over time.