Background
Griffiths was born in Shropshire, England, but little is known of his early life. He began his career as a watchmaker at Stone, Staffordshire, before moving to London around 1741 to work for the Fleet Street bookseller Jacob Robinson.
Griffiths was born in Shropshire, England, but little is known of his early life. He began his career as a watchmaker at Stone, Staffordshire, before moving to London around 1741 to work for the Fleet Street bookseller Jacob Robinson.
In 1749, he founded London’s first successful literary magazine, the Monthly Review (1749–1845), and remained its editor until his death in 1803. In 1747 Griffiths erected the warning Sign of the Dunciad outside of his own shop. Two years later he launched the Monthly Review, which became an instant success and earned him an estimated £2,000 a year.
The bookseller"s sign warning dunces that The Monthly would have no mercy in exposing dull and uninteresting authors.
Throughout his life Griffiths was an avid collector of books, pamphlets and essays. He was an early campaigner for improving the literary status of female poets and novelists, and in a 1798 review of Elizabeth Moody"s Poetic Trifles wrote,
By 1780, he had again recovered sole ownership of the publication, though he had by then largely "retired from his public situation as a bookseller".
He died, in his eighties, at Linden House, Turnham Green, London.