The Epistolary Correspondence of Sir Richard Steele
Including his Familiar Letters to his Wife and Daughters, to Which Are Prefixed, Fragments of Three Plays, Two of Them Undoubtedly Steele's, the Third Supposed to Be Addison's

These two volumes of the letters of Sir Richard Steele, compiled by the publisher John Nichols, were published in 1809.

Richard Steele (Author), John Nichols (Edited by)

9781108074025, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 May 2014

372 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.48 kg

Sir Richard Steele (1672–1729), soldier, courtier and dramatist, is best remembered for his founding of two literary and political periodicals, the Tatler and the Spectator (the latter jointly with his friend Joseph Addison). These two volumes of his letters to friends and family were compiled by the publisher John Nichols and published in 1809. Nichols claims in his preface that these letters, 'some of them evidently scribbled when their amiable Author was probably not in the very best condition for penmanship', are nonetheless of great interest, 'as they contain the private and undisguised opinions of the man who took upon himself to be the Censor of the age'. Volume 2 contains letters to his wife and daughters, and to literary and political figures of his day, including Sir Robert Walpole, Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, the duke of Newcastle, and the theatre managers Cibber and Booth.

Epistolary correspondence, 264–520.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]