Novelist, born in Derbyshire, the son of a joiner; was apprenticed to a printer in London, whose daughter he married; set up in the business for himself, and from his success in it became Master of the Stationers Company in 1754, and King's Printer in 1761; was 50 before he came out as a novelist; published his "Pamela" in 1740, his masterpiece "Clarissa," written in the form of letters, in 1748, and "Sir Charles Grandison" in 1753; they are all three novels of sentiment, are instinct with a spirit of moral purity, and are more praised than read (1689-1761).