Richardson, Samuel

Samuel Richardson was born in Derbyshire as the son of a carpenter. The family could not afford to send him to school, so when he was seventeen, he went down to London and became a printer's apprentice. In 1719, he had made enough money to open a shop of his own. In time, he became a successful printer and publisher, and a respected citizen. At the end of his life he was appointed Master of the Stationers' Company, the London guild of his trade. Richardson published political pamphlets, law texts and academic papers. He was married twice and had twelve children. He seldom participated in the city's social life, he had no classical education and he knew little about the literary scene at the time, although of his friends was the writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson.