Oliver Goldsmith

Life & Legacy

Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish poet, novelist, playwright, and hack writer. He produced literary works in a variety of genres and is considered one of the most versatile writers of the Georgian era. His works are known for their realistic depictions of British society, and his comedy plays for the English stage are considered second in importance only to those of playwright William Shakespeare. Credited with introducing sentimentalism in English literature in 18th-century Great Britain, several of Goldsmith's publications are popular classics of the period, including his only novel, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), and the comedy play She Stoops to Conquer (1773).
He wrote the play The Good-Natur'd Man (1768) and is additionally thought by commentators such as Washington Irving to have written the children's novel The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765), one of the earliest classical works of children's literature. Goldsmith also produced a number of poems during his career, such as The Deserted Village (1770), and contributed to the flourishing of idyllic poetry during the Georgian era.
After spending his early years in Dublin, he settled in London in 1756, where he met many of the writers who shaped his later career, and the majority of his works were written after this period. His first works were published in his The Citizen of the World series in 1760, often under the pseudonym James Willington. Beginning in the 1760s, he maintained a close friendship with Samuel Johnson, another prolific English writer who played a significant role in promoting his poems. His personal mentorship and guidance resulted in Goldsmith expanding his literary writings to include political works. This long-term collaboration between the two authors has been described as "one of the most fruitful intellectual partnerships in 18th-century English letters." In 1764, he became one of the earliest members of Johnson's literary intellectual circle, popularly known as The Club. Although Goldsmith wrote extensively to supplement his income, he was constantly in financial debt and regularly suffered from ill health. He died in 1774 in London at the age of 45 and was buried in Temple Church.
During the 19th century, Goldsmith became regarded as a seminal figure of sentimental literature, having influenced later English authors Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Mary Shelley, all of whom mentioned his characters in their own novels. He continues to be held in high regard in his native Ireland and Great Britain, with many statues, libraries, schools, and streets named after him. Since his death, his magnum opus, The Vicar of Wakefield, has retained its reputation as one of the best-known novels of 18th-century English literature, and his play She Stoops to Conquer remains an influential study in theater classes.