Richard Steele Popular Books
Richard Steele Biography & Facts
Sir Richard Steele (c. 1671 – 1 September 1729) was an Anglo-Irish writer, playwright and politician best known as the co-founder of the magazine The Spectator alongside his close friend Joseph Addison. Early life Steele was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1671 to Richard Steele, a wealthy attorney, and Elinor Symes (née Sheyles); his sister Katherine was born the previous year. He was the grandson of Sir William Steele, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and his first wife Elizabeth Godfrey. His father lived at Mountown House, Monkstown, County Dublin. His mother, of whose family background little is known, was described as "a very beautiful woman, of a noble spirit". His father died when he was four, and his mother a year later. Steele was largely raised by his uncle and aunt, Henry Gascoigne (secretary to James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde), and Lady Katherine Mildmay. A member of the Protestant gentry, he was educated at Charterhouse School, where he first met Addison. After starting at Christ Church, Oxford, he went on to Merton College, Oxford, then joined the Life Guards of the Household Cavalry in order to support King William's wars against France. He was commissioned in 1697, and rose to the rank of captain within two years. Literary life Steele's first published work, The Christian Hero (1701), attempted to point out the differences between perceived and actual masculinity. Written while Steele served in the army, it expressed his idea of a pamphlet of moral instruction. The Christian Hero was ultimately ridiculed for what some thought was hypocrisy because Steele did not necessarily follow his own preaching. He was criticized for publishing a booklet about morals when he himself enjoyed drinking, occasional duelling, and debauchery around town. Steele wrote a comedy that same year titled The Funeral. This play met with wide success and was performed at Drury Lane, bringing him to the attention of the King and the Whig party. Next, Steele wrote The Lying Lover (1703), one of the first sentimental comedies, but a failure on stage. Steele was a member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club. Both Steele and Addison became closely associated with Child's Coffee-house in St Paul's Churchyard. Steele left the army in 1705, perhaps due to the death of the 34th Foot's commanding officer, Lord Lucas, which limited his opportunities of promotion. Also in 1705, Steele married a widow, Margaret Stretch, who died in the following year. After Margaret's death, a slave plantation she owned in Barbados came into the ownership of Steele. At her funeral he met his second wife, Mary Scurlock, whom he nicknamed "Prue" and married in 1707. In the course of their courtship and marriage, he wrote over 400 letters to her. Steele wrote The Tender Husband (1705) with contributions from Addison, and later that year wrote the prologue to The Mistake, by John Vanbrugh, also an important member of the Kit-Kat Club. In 1706 Steele was appointed to a position in the household of Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain. He also gained the favour of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford. The Tatler, Steele's first public journal, first came out on 12 April 1709, and appeared three times a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Steele edited this periodical under the pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff and gave the existing Bickerstaff character an entire, fully developed personality. "Bickerstaff's" best Tatler columns were published by Steele as the book Isaac Bickerstaff, Physician and Astrologer later that year. Steele described his motive in writing The Tatler as "to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behaviour". Steele founded the magazine, and although he and Addison collaborated, Steele wrote the majority of the essays; Steele wrote roughly 188 of the 271 total and Addison 42, with 36 representing the pair's collaborative works. While Addison contributed to The Tatler, it is widely regarded as Steele's work. The Tatler was closed down in early 1711 to avoid the complications of running a Whig publication that had come under Tory attack. Addison and Steele then founded The Spectator in 1711 and also The Guardian in 1713. Steele also had an illegitimate child, Elizabeth Ousley, whom he later adopted. Parliamentary and late literary life Steele became a Whig Member of Parliament in 1713, for Stockbridge. He was soon expelled for issuing a pamphlet in favour of the Hanoverian succession. When the Hanoverian George I of Great Britain came to the throne in the following year, Steele was knighted and given responsibility for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. He returned to parliament in 1715, for Boroughbridge. He wrote a preface to Addison's 1716 comedy play The Drummer. His wife Mary died in 1718, at a time when she was considering separation. Their daughter, Elizabeth (Steele's only surviving legitimate child), married John Trevor, 3rd Baron Trevor. Steele ended his parliamentary career in March 1722. While at Drury Lane, Steele wrote and directed the sentimental comedy The Conscious Lovers, which was an immediate hit on stage in November 1722. Retirement Steele fell out with Addison and with the government administration over the Peerage Bill (1719), and in 1724 he retired to his second wife's homeland of Wales, where he spent the remainder of his life. Steele died in 1729. He was buried in Carmathen at St Peter's Church. During the restoration of the church in 2000, his skull was discovered in a lead casket, having previously been accidentally disinterred during the 1870s. In literature Steele plays a minor role in the novel The History of Henry Esmond by William Makepeace Thackeray. It is during his time with the Life Guards, where he is mostly referred to as Dick the Scholar and makes mention of his friend "Joe Addison". Thackeray depicts Steele in glowing terms as a warm, generous, talented mentor who befriends the title character in his youth and remains loyal to him for years despite their political differences. See also List of abolitionist forerunners References External links Works by Richard Steele at Faded Page (Canada) Works by Richard Steele in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Richard Steele at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Aitken, George Atherton (1889). The Life of Richard Steele. Works by Richard Steele at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Richard Steele at Internet Archive Essays by Steele at Quotidiana.org Dobson, Austin (1886). Richard Steele. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Biography, luminarium.org Profile, libraryireland.com. Discover the Richard Steele popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Richard Steele books.
Best Seller Richard Steele Books of 2024
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The World As a Classroom
Richard R SteeleBook explaining all aspects of outdoor education.
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The Tatler, volume 3
Richard SteeleAccording to Wikipedia: "Sir Richard Steele (bap. 12 March 1672 – 1 September 1729) was an Irish writer and politician, remembered as cofounder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of ...
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The Tatler, volume 1
Richard SteeleAccording to Wikipedia: "Sir Richard Steele (bap. 12 March 1672 – 1 September 1729) was an Irish writer and politician, remembered as cofounder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of ...
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Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
Edward A. Bloom & Lillian D. BloomThe Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling stu...
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The Promise of Canada
Charlotte GrayWhat does it mean to be a Canadian? What great ideas have changed our country? An awardwinning writer casts her eye over our nation’s history, highlighting some of our most importa...
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Works of Richard Steele
Richard Steele5 works of Richard Steele Irish writer and politician (16721729) This ebook presents a collection of 5 works of Richard Steele. A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump direc...
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Steels Ehre
Iain Gale & Dr. Holger HanowellBayern, 1704. Höchstädt an der Donau: Die entscheidende Schlacht des Spanischen Erbfolgekriegs steht bevor. Auf der einen Seite die Briten unter John Churchill, Herzog von Marlboro...
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Tracts and Pamphlets by Richard Steele
Rae BlanchardFirst Published in 1968. Sir Richard Steele's plays and major periodicals have been reprinted in modern times. But the miscellaneous tracts and pamphlets, which in his own day ...
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Steels Entscheidung
Iain Gale & Dr. Holger Hanowell1708. Captain Jack Steel ist wieder dort, wo er hingehört: auf dem Schlachtfeld und unter den Männern des Herzogs von Marlborough. Doch die Engländer benötigen einen tieferen Einbl...
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Richard A. Steele v. State Wisconsin
1995 United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit August TermRichard A. Steele was charged and found guilty of the first degree murder of his wife, Joan. After a bifurcated trial in response to appropriate pleas, a jury found him guilty and ...
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Mutant
Peter ClementFormer ER doctor Peter Clement blends electrifying human drama with the suspense of topnotch medical thrillers. Now, in an alltooplausible story that could have been torn from toda...
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Critical Condition
Peter ClementIn the heat of a passionate encounter, ecstasy suddenly turns to terror for renowned geneticist and TV personality Dr. Kathleen Sullivan. Stricken by a brain hemorrhage, she is ren...
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Richard Steele Private Eye
David C. ReyesFor Richard Steele, being a private eye in 1947 started with a bang of interesting cases. However, things were now becoming stale. He needed something to rattle the cage of mediocr...
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The Anatomy of a Spy
Michael SmithFor fans of both real spy dramas and fictional onesboth Ben Macintyre and John le Carréthe story of why spies spy. Why do people put their lives at risk to collect intellige...
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Richard Steele
Richard SteeleWith centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world. Who are w...
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Richard B. Ogilvie v. Leonard Steele
Court Of Appeals Of KentuckyThe Steele family was injured when their van collided with a train owned and operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company (Chicago Railroad). The Ste...
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Steels Duell
Iain Gale & Dr. Holger HanowellSpanische Niederlande, 1706. Trotz ihres glorreichen Siegs in der Schlacht bei Ramillies kommt die britische Armee nicht zur Ruhe. Zwar haben die Männer unter dem Herzog von Marlbo...