Samuel Richardson and Edward Young's Authorship Network

The correspondence between Edward Young and Samuel Richardson reveals not only their reciprocal friendship, but also their complex network of authorship. Beginning with Young’s Night-Thoughts (1742–46) and Richardson’s Clarissa (1747–48), Richardson took an increasingly active role in Young’s compositions, culminating in Conjectures on Original Composition (1759), while Young had a diminished effect on Richardson’s writings. By viewing their work as part of a larger trajectory of literary influence, we can trace Richardson’s significant impact on Conjectures on Original Composition and rightly consider him as that text’s co-author, though he is framed instead as the work’s recipient.