GOLDSMITH, OLIVER

born Nov. 10, 1730, Kilkenny West, County Westmeath, Ire. died April 4, 1774, London English essayist, poet, novelist, dramatist, and eccentric, made famous by such works as the series of essays The Citizen of the World, or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher (1762), the poem The Deserted Village (1770), the novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), and the play She Stoops to Conquer (1773). Additional reading The Goldsmith bibliography in The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, vol. 2 (1971), covers both Goldsmith's writings and Goldsmith criticism through 1969. Still of interest is Temple Scott, Oliver Goldsmith Bibliographically and Biographically Considered (1928). Works. The Collected Works of Oliver Goldsmith, ed. by Arthur Friedman, 5 vol. (1966), supersedes all other collected editions. The Collected Letters of Oliver Goldsmith, ed. by K.C. Balderston (1928), is standard. All of the poetry, together with full notes and extensive commentary, is given in The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, and Oliver Goldsmith, ed. by R.H. Lonsdale (1969). The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, ed. by A. Dobson (1906), is still valuable for its commentary and notes, as is the edition of the plays by A. Dobson and G.P. Baker, The Good Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer (1905). Of the many editions of The Vicar of Wakefield those by Oswald Doughty (1928) and F.W. Hilles (1951) are outstanding by reason of their critical introductions. Biography and criticism. The authoritative biography is R.M. Wardle, Oliver Goldsmith (1957). Significant older biographical works are Sir James Prior, The Life, 2 vol. (1837), and John Forster, The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1854). Of the many treatments of Goldsmith by contemporaries of his, the most important is that by Boswell in his Life of Samuel Johnson, 2 vol. (1791). Recent critical studies include C.M. Kirk, Oliver Goldsmith (1967); Ricardo Quintana, Oliver Goldsmith: A Georgian Study (1967); and R.H. Hopkins, The True Genius of Oliver Goldsmith (1969). Major Works: An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe (1759); The Bee (1759), a collection of essays originally published in the periodical of the same name; The Citizen of the World; or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to his Friends in the East, 2 vol. (1762); The Life of Richard Nash, of Bath, Esq. (1762); An History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to His Son, 2 vol. (1764); The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society (1764), verse; The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale, 2 vol. (1766); The Good Natur'd Man: A Comedy (1768); The Deserted Village (1770), verse; She Stoops to Conquer: or, The Mistakes of a Night. A Comedy (1773); Retaliation. A Poem (1774); An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature, 8 vol. (1774).