Tobias Smollett
TOBIAS SMOLLETT was born in 1721 at Dalquhurn, now a part of Renton in Dunbartonshire. He qualified as a surgeon at the University of Glasgow. In an attempt to fulfil his literary ambitions, he left Scotland for London in 1739 to try his luck as a dramatist. Lack of success spurred a career as a naval surgeon which took him to a new life in Jamaica for several years. On his return to London he set up in practice and married.
His first literary success was a novel, The Adventures of Roderick Random, in 1748, which was soon followed by four more of equal favour as well as a flood of translations, poetry, plays and historical works.
Increasing ill health forced a removal to Italy, where he died in 1771 at the age of fifty. He was buried in the English cemetery at Livorno.
