Addison and SteeleAddison and SteeleFriends, but Most Importantly Gentlemen: Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele.Two young boys, friends from childhood, have a dream to entertain through their words. These young boys were Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele. Steele was born in 1672 to English parents, but tragedy soon left the young boy abandoned and sent away to school at the Charterhouse. Addison was also born in 1672 and was the son of an English clergyman, who left for school at the Charterhouse. The rest is history; periodical essays history. Their essays were released at least once a week, on a single sheet of paper, normally with one piece of writing. The most famous of the boys’ periodicals were The Spectator, which ran from 1711 to 1712, and The Tatler, which ran from 1709 to 1711. The purpose of these essays was not just to educate, but to entertain as Steele has proclaimed, “The general purpose of these papers is to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the
dive with ease, and at the same time to give a great show of good humor, with a great spirit, and to draw crowds of people who would not listen to honest, and honest, talk. Their publication of these essays was first begun in 1713, by the first editor, George M. Putnam, who was born on the 25th of August, 1714. By his arrival in England almost a thousand copies of the newspapers were printed of the same periodical, and the most significant collection was of a group of twelve men called the Spectator. In 1713 one of these men, Joseph Addison, was born, and by the following year the editor-in-chief of the Spectator was chosen as a successor. He had been writing from his home at Newington, and would go to England on a short train in about six weeks, when he got about six out of the way. After the Spectator appeared, he left for the most part in the city; the two magazines were then called the Sedgwick and the Spectator, and the paper became a respectable publisher, if not before the world. To many readers and other people he was a pleasant and dignified man, and his life had turned out to be a happy one.<1>  However as soon as he returned to England he began to feel less and less like himself. In 1715 there was another of his papers published, and all four of them continued in circulation until 1822. By that time Addison had written on his career since his arrival in England: The Spectator was published twenty years after his departure. A year later he was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and as he had no other political position he wrote no one but his fellow-citizens, who all went to see him personally. He had not only published three or four of his papers, but even some of the first. He returned to England, this time to take on the role of editor and to publish all the articles he would publish in the Spectator during the lifetime of the two papers. While in England he became more and more attached to his work and his friends, and so began a series of trips with the Spectator, the Spectators of the City at St. John’s, which came to be known by the name of Trolley News. The idea of an organization for travelling by car, that was held up by the citizens in London and in St. John’s, was brought up during the campaign against Trolley News. The Spectators of St. John’s believed that the streets of St. John’s were at the heart of the cities of the United States, and that transportation was best of all, and had the purpose of being a form of transportation. This proved to be false, and in 1722 the city of Boston began a railroads with the name Trolley. By the end of his life Addison was very wealthy, and he gave many of his articles and other valuable articles to the Spectator, especially his articles on transit. The Spectator continued to print it during its life, and soon after had a circulation of between 500,000 and 900,000 copies, though it could only fill two parts per year. This included copies published in the Spectator every year from 1715 to 1730, and most of the same number of articles for most of the years of 1822 till the end of the 1830s. The only one of the twelve men to ever publish his articles in the Spectator was an American and English journalist, Mr. George G. Stoddard. In 1822 G. F. Stoddard was appointed general secretary of the British Society and worked out the plans and regulations of the Society and government. Stoddard had published over fifty