John Cleland

John Cleland (1709–1789) was an English novelist who is most famous and infamous as the author of Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. He wrote Fanny Hill in two installments while serving time in prison for debt. In 1749, he was arrested for obscenity yet denied responsibility for the novel. The book was not officially published again for one hundred years. However, it continued to sell well and was published in pirate editions. Cleland is also the author of the lesser-known and less well received novels Memoirs of a Coxcomb and The Woman of Honour, as well as The Surprises of Love, a collection of romance tales.