Clarissa; or, The history of a young lady: comprehending the most important concerns of private life; and particularly shewing the distresses that may attend the misconduct both of parents and children, in relation to marriage ..

Samuel Richardson (baptised 19 August 1689 – 4 July 1761) was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady (1748) and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753). He printed almost 500 works, including journals and magazines, working periodically with the London bookseller Andrew Millar. Richardson had been apprenticed to the printer John Wilde, whose daughter Martha he eventually married. All six of their children died in infancy or childbirth, with Martha herself dying in childbirth in 1731. In 1733, he married Elizabeth Leake, daughter of printer John Leake.