A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue 1712

by Jonathan Swift

This pamphlet has Swift's name on the half-title & at the text's end, dated 2/22/1711,12. He appeals for Oxford's assistance reforming English, "Our Language is extremely imperfect; that its daily Improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily Corruptions; that the Pretenders to polish & refine it, have chiefly multiplied Abuses & Absurdities; &, that in many Instances, it offends against every Part of Grammar". He suggests a Society empowered for "fixing our language for ever". Consequently, "the old Books will yet be always valuable, according to their intrinsick Worth, & not thrown aside on account of unintelligible Words & Phrases, which appear harsh & uncouth, only because they are out of Fashion".

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1712

About the author

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift".
Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier—or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian".