author
Joseph Addison
1672–1719
Best known for shaping the friendly, polished voice of early English journalism, this essayist helped turn everyday observation into lively literature. His work with Richard Steele on The Spectator made him one of the defining writers of the early 1700s.
14 Audiobooks
The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 With Translations and Index for the Series
by Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele
The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase With Memoirs and Critical Dissertations, by the Rev. George Gilfillan
by Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Somerville
The Spectator, Volume 2.
by Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele
The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays
by Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele
The De Coverley Papers, From 'The Spectator'
by Joseph Addison, Eustace Budgell, Sir Richard Steele
Essays and Tales
by Joseph Addison
The Tatler, Volume 1
by Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison
The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers
by Joseph Addison, Eustace Budgell, Sir Richard Steele
The Tatler, Volume 4
by Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison
The Tatler, Volume 2
by Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison
Days with Sir Roger De Coverley
by Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele
The Tatler, Volume 3
by Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison
Cato: A Tragedy, in Five Acts
by Joseph Addison
The Coverley Papers, From 'The Spectator'
by Joseph Addison, Eustace Budgell, Sir Richard Steele
About the author
Born in Wiltshire in 1672, Joseph Addison became an English essayist, poet, dramatist, and politician whose clear, graceful prose left a lasting mark on literary style. He was educated at Charterhouse and Oxford, and he first gained notice through his poetry before moving into public life.
Addison is most closely linked with Richard Steele, his friend and collaborator on The Tatler and especially The Spectator. Through those periodicals, he helped popularize a form of writing that was witty, moral, conversational, and accessible to a growing reading public. His essays on manners, taste, character, and daily life were widely admired and helped shape the tone of 18th-century prose.
He also wrote poetry and the tragedy Cato, while serving in government as a Whig politician. Even with that public career, he is chiefly remembered for the calm intelligence and elegance of his essays, which continued to influence readers and writers long after his death in London in 1719.