Richardson was one of those credited with inventing the novel and, revolutionary for the time, inviting readers into his protagonists’ emotional world (his contemporary Fielding and he spent their time sniping at one another). He commissioned frontispiece illustrations from Hogarth, though decided against using them. He paid off a debt that was threatening to put Johnson into prison, gave his friend Young plentiful advice, and seems to have employed Goldsmith as a proof-reader. As a printer and publisher, he revised some of Defoe’s work; as with Fielding, it is hard to imagine they did not meet, though the facts are unclear.