Sir Richard Steele 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.
Portrait by Jonathan Richardson
A c. 1712 Kit-Cat Portrait of Steele by Godfrey Kneller
Sir Richard Steele's House at Llangunnor near Carmarthen, 1797
Of the 271 essays published in The Tatler, Joseph Addison (left) wrote 42, Richard Steele (right) wrote roughly 188, and the rest were collaborations between the two writers.
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. These were collected into seven volumes. The paper was revived without the involvement of Steele in 1714, appearing thrice weekly for six months, and these papers when collected formed the eighth volume. Eustace Budgell, a cousin of Addison's, and the poet John Hughes also contributed to the publication.
The Spectator from 7 June 1711
Title pages of the c. 1788 edition of the collected edition of Addison and Steele's The Spectator
