Dodsley, Robert (1703-1764)

English writer and publisher. In 1735 his dramatic satire The Toy Shop was staged at Covent Garden Theatre, London. In the same year, with capital supplied by Alexander Pope and others, he set up in business as a bookseller. His ventures included the publication of works by Pope, Samuel Johnson, and Oliver Goldsmith. Dodsley produced a 12-volume Select Collection of Old Plays (1744).

In early life Dodsley was a footman. While in service, he wrote occasional verses and received the active patronage of the writer Daniel Defoe. He published Servitude (1729), later reissued as The Footman's Friendly Advice to his Bretheren of the Livery (1731); and A Muse in Livery (1732).

His first important publishing venture was in 1737 when he issued Pope's First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace Imitated and in the following year he brought out Dr Johnson's London. In 1759, joined by his younger brother James Dodsley (1724-1797), he published Goldsmith's Polite Learning, and then retired into private life.