Jonathan Swift

Swift, Jonathan (1667–1745), Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, poet, and prose satirist. Two of his satires were published in 1704: The Battle of the Books and The Tale of a Tub. He became a Tory in 1710, taking over The Examiner, the Tory journal. From 1714 he lived in Ireland, as dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. He deplored the plight of the Irish poor in the Drapier's Letters (1724). His masterpiece is Gulliver's Travels (1726), a political and social satire that has been adapted as a children's classic.

See also: Gulliver's Travels.