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On October 28, 1726, Dublin Writer Jonathan Swift Published His Classic Satire, Gulliver's Travels



On October 28, 1726, Dublin Writer Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) published his classic satire novel Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.  Dean Swift was a leading clergyman, satirist, essayist and political commentator of the 18th century, and Gulliver’s Travels was his best known work.

The famous book, which Swift later said he wrote "to vex the world," not entertain it, traces the fictional steps of Dr. Lemuel Gulliver, a ship surgeon who ends up in different worlds, including a Land of Lilliputians and a Land of Giants.  There is an interesting connection of the book to Milton, Massachusetts, according to a book published in 1889 called The Story of the Irish in Boston by J. B. Cullen.  According to Cullen:



 "Anthony Gulliver was born in Ireland in 1619, and died in Milton in 1706,"  spawning a "large number of able and influential men and women who have been prominent in the history of church and town affairs in Milton for nearly 200 years.
                                                                                                                                   
"Capt Lemuel Gulliver, who once lived at Algeria Corner (in Milton), returned to Ireland in 1723 and gave a glowing description of the American country to his neighbor, Jonathan Swift.  Lemuel's imagination was vivid and fanciful, and he turned it to a quaint account in this instance.  He declared to Swift that 'the frogs were as tall as his knees, and had musical voices that were guitar-like in their tones; the mosquitoes' bills were as long as darning-needles;' and from these exaggerated and fabulous accounts of the country, the great Swift conceived and worth the famous Gulliver's Travels."

Copies of Gulliver's Travels are available in print and online at the Boston Public Library.  The book is also available to read at the Guttenberg Project

An audio tour of Jonathan Swift's Dublin was created by Museum of Literature Ireland, on its popular digital radio station, RadioMoLI, which enables visitors to stream dozens of podcasts, lectures, interviews and readings from the museum's digital archive.   In all, the tour cover 15 places that capture 18th century Dublin, with the final stop being St Patrick’s Cathedral, where Swift was Dean for many years and where he is buried. His grave is marked on the ornate floor of the cathedral.

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