Author: Oliver Goldsmith

The Vicar of Wakefield, printed in 1766, turned the ruin of a country clergyman into a fable both comic and sentimental, and stayed in print for two centuries. Its author was born on 10 November 1728 in Ireland, either near Ballymahon in County Longford or at Elphin, County Roscommon, the son of an Anglican curate. Oliver Goldsmith graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1749, studied medicine at Edinburgh and Leiden without taking a degree, and crossed Flanders, France, Switzerland and northern Italy on foot, paying his way with a flute. From 1756 he wrote for hire in London, permanently in debt and a poor hand at cards. Samuel Johnson and Joshua Reynolds brought him into their Club as a founding member in 1764, the year of The Traveller. The Deserted Village followed in 1770 and the comedy She Stoops to Conquer in 1773. His lighter verse includes An Elegy On The Death Of A Mad Dog and An Elegy on the Glory of Her Sex, Mrs. Mary Blaize, both mock laments that flip their own compliments at the last line. He died in London on 4 April 1774, aged 45, and lies at the Temple Church.