author
Stephen Fovargue
d. 1775
An 18th-century English writer remembered for taking aim at common misconceptions, he wrote with a sharp, curious mind and a taste for clearing away popular errors. His surviving reputation rests mainly on a single unusual book that blends skepticism, observation, and lively argument.
1 Audiobook
A New Catalogue of Vulgar Errors
by Stephen Fovargue
About the author
Stephen Fovargue was an English author who died in 1775. The clearest confirmed detail about him as a writer is his book A New Catalogue of Vulgar Errors, published in 1767.
That book was issued in Cambridge, and contemporary catalog records describe him as "A.M." and a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. The work sets out to examine mistaken beliefs and received opinions, placing him in a long tradition of writers who tried to test popular wisdom rather than simply repeat it.
Although little biographical information appears to survive, Fovargue's book has lasted because of its appealing idea: collecting and challenging the errors people casually accept as true. For modern readers, that gives his work a thoughtful, questioning quality that still feels recognizable.