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Volume I, printed for S,Buckley of the Strand, 1712, leather binding (original) hardcover with gilt designs to boards, ribbed spine with gilt lettering, marbled endpapers, index, 461 pages, 13.2 cms x 20.2 cms x 3.2 cms, condition: very good.
Bookplate of Basil Fielding (also Feilding), 4th Earl of Denbigh, 3rd Earl of Desmond (1668 - 1717), English peer and member of the House of Lords, styled Viscount Feilding from 1671 to 1685.
The Spectator was a daily publication founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England, lasting from 1711 to 1712. Each "paper", or "number", was approximately 2,500 words long, and the original run consisted of 555 numbers, beginning on 1 March 1711.
Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. His simple prose style marked the end of the mannerisms and conventional classical images of the seventeenth century.
The Spectator had many readers in the American colonies. In particular, James Madison, 'father of the US constitution', and the fourth president, read the Spectator avidly. It is said to have had a major influence on his world view, lasting throughout his life (1751 - 1836). Benjamin Franklin was also a reader, and the Spectator influenced his style in his "Silence Dogood" letters.
Jürgen Habermas, philosopher, saw The Spectator as instrumental in the formation of the public sphere in 18th century England..
One of the great augustan periodicals defining British journalism, and comprised one of the most triumphant literary endeavours of the age, The Spectator transformed periodical writing, in English..
