Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667. He spent most of his childhood in Ireland until, aged twenty-one, he moved to England, where he found employment as secretary to the diplomat Sir William Temple. On Temple’s death in 1699, Swift returned to Dublin to pursue a career in the Church. By this time he was also publishing in a variety of genres, and between 1704 and 1729 he produced a string of brilliant satires, of which Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal are the best known. Between 1713 and 1742 he was Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and he was buried there upon his death in 1745.

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Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667. He spent most of his childhood in Ireland until, aged twenty-one, he moved to England, where he found employment as secretary to the diplomat Sir William Temple. On Temple’s death in 1699, Swift returned to Dublin to pursue a career in the Church. By this time he was also publishing in a variety of genres, and between 1704 and 1729 he produced a string of brilliant satires, of which Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal are the best known. Between 1713 and 1742 he was Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and he was buried there upon his death in 1745.

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