Savage, Richard, d. 1743

Savage was best known for satirical poems and occasional verse, including The Authors of the Town (1725), The Bastard (a poem dedicated to his mother on his own illegitimate birth, 1728), The Wanderer (1729), and An Author to Be Lett (1729). He also authored two dramas, Love in a Veil: a Comedy (1719) and The Tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbury (1724). Savage lived a colorful life marked, among other events, by a conviction and later pardon on murder charges. He died destitute in prison.

Saumaise, Claude, 1588-1653

French classical scholar known by Latin name "Claudius Salmasius." During the English Civil War, Salmasius published a defense of England's absolute monarchy. The popularity of this publication disturbed John Milton, who published his Defensio pro Populo Anglicano (Defence of the People of England) in response. Milton's publication included personal attacks of Salmasius and his wife.

Sappho

The Lesbos-born Greek lyric poet, probably from the mid-seventh century B.C.E., widely viewed as the mother of all female poetic tradition, was especially noted for love poems to the boatman Phaon.

Sand, George, 1804-1876

The pseudonym of nineteenth-century French author and feminist, Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, baronne Dudevant. Sand was a prolific and immensely popular writer of fiction, drama, travel accounts, and correspondence as well as autobiographical work. A political writer during the French Revolution of 1848, she was critical of the Napoleonic Code for its inequitable treatment of women. Unhappy in her marriage, she separated from her husband and pursued an unconventional lifestyle that included dressing as a man and affairs with many lovers, most notable being the composer Frédéric Chopin.