Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist and essayist (born 1667)

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swift". His trademark deadpan and ironic style of writing, particularly in works such as A Modest Proposal (1729), has led to such satire being subsequently termed as "Swiftian". He wrote the satirical book Gulliver's Travels (1726), which became his best-known publication and popularised the fictional island of Lilliput. Following the remarkable success of his works, Swift came to be regarded by many as the greatest satirist of the Georgian era, and one of the foremost prose satirists in the history of English literature.