Fielding, Henry ___ 1707-1754 ___ British ___ writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Fielding grew up in Dorset, and was educated at Eton and Leiden University. Settling in London, he became a successful playwright. His satirical style of writing, however, drew the wrath of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who engineered a law - the Theatre Licensing Act - designed to put a stop to his plays. Subsequently, Fielding found even more fame as a novelist, particularly with 'Tom Jones'. Later in his life, he campaigned, with his half brother Sir John Fielding, on justice issues, and helped develop the forerunner of Scotland Yard. Fielding was married twice, to Charlotte Cradock, who died in 1744, and to Mary Daniels who had been his wife's maid. Fielding was not a diarist by nature, but, at the end of his life, unable to walk and suffering severely from dropsy and asthma, he wrote a journal of his sea voyage to Lisbon where he went with Mary in search of a health cure. It provides a valuable insight into the character of a man considered to be one of the founders of the English novel.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Voyage to Lisbon

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1754 ___ literary self health maritime

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
 

May 2005, June 2008, April 2013
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments, or if you've found the site useful. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.