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Samuel Richardson was one of the great letter-writers in English. His three great novels, Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison were written in epistolary form, and Richardson himself was known in his time for the way he used his letters for both professional and personal purposes. As a printer, Richardson corresponded with authors, readers, and other printers and publishers. As a friend, he supported his correspondents when they were personally struggling. As a novelist, he engaged readers both before and after the publication of his works, soliciting their opinion and defending his own methods. Correspondence Primarily on Pamela and Clarissa (1732–1749) gives us Richardson the printer, the friend, and the novelist in the crucial early years of his unexpected success and fame as a literary writer, providing insight into how and why he created innovative works that changed the course of literary history.

This three-volume set brings together all that Samuel Richardson himself published on the composition, printing and interpretation of "Clarissa". The various short works reveal Richardson's reactions to the concerns and issues raised by contemporary readers.

Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) was a highly regarded printer and influential novelist when he produced his final work of fiction, The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753). Like his other novels, it was written in epistolary form, reflecting his lifelong interest in letter writing and the letter as a genre. Covering the period 1750–1754, many of these fully annotated letters are published from manuscript for the first time, or have been restored to their complete original form. Recording Richardson's relationships with leading cultural figures including Samuel Johnson, Colley Cibber and Elizabeth Carter, the volume reveals his support for other authors while struggling to complete his own 'story of a Good Man'. This publishing saga also incorporates Richardson's responses to the Irish piracy of his novel, and his exchanges with anonymous fans, including those who attacked the novel's tolerance for Catholicism and those who pleaded for a sequel.