Jonathan Swift

(Dublin, 1667-id., 1745) Irish writer. He studied theology at Trinity College Dublin, and after civil war broke out he moved to England, where he obtained the post of secretary of the diplomat Sir William Temple, a distant relative of his mother. He met Esther Johnson, daughter of Temple, who became the target of a series of intimate letters, published posthumously in 1766 under the title Letters to Stella (Journal to Stella), some biographers say he came to marry her secret.