Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift".

Swift is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of a Tub. His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian".

He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—including Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier, or anonymously. Swift was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles. He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the "foremost prose satirist in the English language."