Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison was born in 1672 and died in 1719. He is often considered to be one of the first journalists because his work was largely social commentary on his observations, and he produced essays and articles with the intention of making a profit. The invention of the printing press was invaluable to Addison because it meant that he was able to produce his work on a "mass" scale rather than having only one copy. This allowed him to make numerous copies and sell them to an audience who had not experienced mass produced writing other than the Bible. The move away from Puritan society was very important to Addison's work because it meant that he was writing for a readership who wanted entertaining and informative writing.

Addison, along side Richard Steele introduced magazines into society. Steele created Tatler in 1709 and Addison contributed to it regularly. Steele and Addison produced the first daily newspaper called The Spectator. In preparation for the seminar this week I read issue #476 of The Spectator. I was surprised when I read the issue to find that it was written similarly to how we write today, and was always surprised to find it entertaining as well as insightful.

Addison discusses whether it is best to write with method or not. He states that of his work there are "some which are written with regularity and method, and other that run out into the wilderness of these compositions, which go by the name of Essays.' I understood this to mean that Addison only wrote with a plan in mind when producing his articles, and wrote in a slightly more relaxed way when composing his essays. However, he did explain that he thinks it is important to have method in writing. He also expanded on this saying that it is also best to have method in conversation. Addison believed that conversation was almost an art form in itself and that appropriate consideration was needed before engaging in it.

He gave the example of Tom Puzzle, a character who he created to represent particular types of people and behaviour he has observed. Addison explained how Tom Puzzle was not a master of conversation because he only had a small amount of knowledge on a few topics, and so would try and change the conversation to something that he was able to comment on. I found this point to be an accurate observation of some people in society as I have met a great number of people who behave in the same way as Tom Puzzle.

In Addison's time people who were stupid and couldn't hold intellectual conversation were ridiculed and I think that is also true of society today. Today we get enjoyment out of the stupidity of other people. For example, in the popular sitcom Friends, the character of Joey was entertaining because he was so stupid, and many other sitcoms have also used stupidity as a form of entertainment.



The character of Joey is obviously fictional, designed to be stupid for our amusement. Reality TV shows have created a new form of this entertainment by showing the public people who genuinely are completely unintellectual. Jade Goody is a classic example of this, but in her case, it was her stupidity which made her a celebrity in Britain and she earned an awful lot of money as result.



Addison's values of method an intelligence were the founding of his journalistic style of writing. He seems to have found a good balance of humour in his writing, although it is not the obvious humour we would expect to read in the media today. His humour is "classically English", by which I mean it is rather dry and sarcastic, much like his way of insulting people. Addison was a typical gentleman in the sense that he insulted people in his work in such a way that it would have been difficult to see that he was actually making an insult. For example, in his piece The Royal Exchange he states that he does "rather fancy my self like the old Philosopher, who upon being asked what country-man he was, replied that he was a citizen of the world." This very dry sense of humour was popular at the time and was a contributing factor in the success of his work, largely because the previous Puritan regime had not allowed for humour of any kind.

The Puritans had imposed a culture in which things such as humour, reading and fashioned were deemed immoral, with the exception of reading the Bible. This made citizens extremely oppressed, and meant that when Addison produced work that went against the old beliefs, it was found very exciting in comparison. In The Royal Exchange, Addison writes:

"The Single Dress of a Woman of Quality is often the Product of an hundred Climates. The Muff and the Fan come together from the different Ends of the Earth. The Scarf is sent from the Torrid Zone, and the Tippet from beneath the Pole. The Brocade Petticoat rises out of the Mines of Peru, and the Diamond Necklace out of the Bowels of Indostan"

This description of fashion was very popular with the readers at the time. Pieces such as this would appeal to men as well as women because everyone was very interested in fashion, after years of dull clothes in a Puritan culture. The fact that Addison wrote pieces which would also appeal to women meant that he was appealing to the largest readership he possibly could, which ultimately would make more money for him. Women at the time would buy a copy of The Spectator, for example, and meet in groups to read it together and discuss the topics. This became a social event and meant that Addison's could secure buyers for his future copies.

Addison wrote in a clear and entertaining way which won him a large readerships and allowed him to earn a lot of money in a way that no done had really previously.