The Epistolary Correspondence of Sir Richard Steele

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'. In Volume 1, many of the letters are addressed to his second wife (both before and after their marriage), others to Addison, Swift, and the duke of Marlborough. Fragments of two unfinished plays by Steele, and one by Addison, are also included.