Goldsmith, Oliver. Born in 1728. English poet and romance writer. Son of a poor Irish clergyman of Pallas, Longford, went as sizar, in 1744, to Trinity College, Dublin, where he led a miserable life until he took his degree five years later. After this - having failed to obtain ordination, Goldsmith took pupils for a time, and lost his money by extravagance - he went to Edinburgh in 1752, and from thence to Leyden. But after staying there a year, found himself penniless, and traveled to London through France, Switzerland, and Northern Italy, supporting himself by flute playing. After a precarious existence as a surgeon, an author, and a literary hack, he produced, in 1759, his "Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe." This sold well, and gained for the author the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson. Soon after he was engaged to contribute to the "Public Ledger," writing the famous "Chinese Letters," afterward published as "The Citizen of the World." His next important work was the "Letters from a Nobleman to His Son." "The Traveler" followed in 1765, and "The Vicar of Wakefield" in 1766, but Goldsmith was improvident as ever. As a dramatist he became known as the writer of the "Good-Natured Man," brought out at Covent Garden in 1786, and "She Stoops to Conquer" in 1773, and as a poet by "The Deserted Village" (1770), and his last work, "The Retaliation." Goldsmith wrote numerous other works, among which may be mentioned "Animated Nature." He died, heavily in debt, in 1774.

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