On this day in 1771, Scottish writer Tobias Smollett died. A poet, he wrote plays, travel books and what has become his legacy, the picaresque novel. Best known for Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle, he actually started his adult life as a doctor and was commissioned aboard the HMS Chichester as its medical surgeon.
While so engaged, his travels included stops in Jamaica. He eventually returned home with his bride in 1747 and set up practice as a surgeon. But writing was his thing and he quickly got to work. He published his first poem "The Tears of Scotland", about the Battle of Culloden, but his first hit was "Roderick Random" in 1748.
Quickly thereafter came "Peregrine Pickle" and "The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom in 1753. He also came out with a history of England, whick took him eight years to write. Thank heavens England was 350 years younger then.
"I think for my part one half of the nation is mad—and the other not very sound."
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