Novelist, born at Dalquhurn, Dumbartonshire, of good family; bred to medicine, but drifted to literature, in prosecution of which he set out to London at the age of 18; his first effort was a failure; he took an appointment as a surgeon's mate on board a war-ship in 1746, which landed him for a time in the West Indies; on his return to England in 1748 achieved his first success in "Roderick Random," which was followed by "Peregrine Pickle" in 1751, "Count Fathom" in 1755, and "Humphrey Clinker" in 1771, added to which he wrote a "History of England," and a political lampoon, "The Ad ventures of an Atom"; his novels have no plot, but "in inventive tale-telling and in cynical characterisation he is not easily equalled" (1721-1771).