"[He] went as consul to Smyrna, where, perhaps, he first imbibed those loose principles which, in a subsequent publication, too infamous to be particularised, tarnished his reputation as an author…. In this situation [debtors’ prison], one of the booksellers who disgrace the profession, offered him a temporary relief for writing the work above alluded to, which brought a stigma on his name, which time has not obliterated, and which will be consigned to his memory whilst its poisonous contents are in circulation…. In conversation he was very pleasant and anecdotal, understanding most of the living languages, and speaking them all very fluently. As a writer, he shewed himself best in novels, song-writing, and the lighter species of authorship; but when he touched politics, he touched it like a torpedo, he was cold, benumbing, and soporific."
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John Cleland obituary by John Nichols in The Gentleman's Magazine (23 January 1789).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Cleland
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John Cleland
John Cleland (1709 – January 23 1789) was an English writer; he is best remembered as the author of the erotic novel Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, sometimes published under the title Fanny Hill.
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