Oliver Goldsmith (1730 - 1774)
Elphin, Roscommon, Ireland

"For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again"

Oliver Goldsmith was born to an Anglo-Irish Clergyman and Anne Jones. He received his education from Trinity College in Dublin with a B.A. degree. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and Leiden, but his career as a physician was quite unsuccessful. He wandered throughout Europe and lived by begging. However, his rise to fame came quickly upon the publication of The Deserted Village in 1770. Although his first play failed, She Stoops to Conquer in 1773 was a great success and is known today as one of the greatest comedies ever. His comedies injected a much-needed sense of realism into the dull, sentimental plays of the period. They are lively, witty, and imbued with an endearing humanity. The Vicar of Wakefield is the warm, humorous, if somewhat melodramatic, story of a country parson and his family. Although he earned a great deal of money in his lifetime, Goldsmith's improvidence kept him poor. Boswell depicted him as a ridiculous, blundering, but tenderhearted and generous creature. He had the friendship of many of the literary and artistic great of his day, the most notable being that of Samuel Johnson.

Works
Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe (1759)
The Citizen of the World (1762)
The Traveler (1764)
The Vicar of Wakefield (1766)
The Good-natur'd Man (1768)
The Deserted Village (1770)
She Stoops to Conquer (1773)

Sources:

"Oliver Goldsmith." TheatreHistory.com. 2001. http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/goldsmith001.html

Grouden, Brenda. "Oliver Goldsmith." Glasson. 1999. http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/goldsmith001.html