Jonathan Swift, Irish poet and satirist, was born in Dublin in 1667 and died in 1745. He was educated at Trinity College in that city, and in 1689 became secretary to Sir William Temple of Surrey. He took Holy Orders in the Church of England in 1694 and became Dean of St. Patrick's in 1713. For many years he made love to two women and his correspondence with them has been published. He finally was privately married to Esther Johnson, the "Stella" of his poems, in 1716, but continued courting the other woman until she died of a "broken heart" in 1723. His wife, whom he never allowed to live at the Deanery, also died of a "broken heart" after twelve years of marriage. Swift's chief works are "The Tale of a Tub," 1704, and "Gulliver's Travels," 1726-27.

Half-Dime Library. No. 12