W. J. Courthope's biography of politician and writer Joseph Addison (1672–1719) was published in 1884 in the first series of English Men of Letters. Educated at Harrow and Oxford, Courthope (1842–1917) was elected fellow of the British Academy in 1907. His scholarly works include a biography and edition of the works of Alexander Pope. This work begins not with an account of Addison's birth and childhood but instead with an essay on 'The State of English Society and Letters after the Restoration', contextualising a writer whose periodical essays were still widely read and enjoyed in the late nineteenth century. The book focuses more on Addison's literary career than his political activity in support of the Whigs, devoting chapters to his work for The Tatler, The Spectator (which he co-founded with Richard Steele) and The Guardian, his tragedy Cato, and his notorious quarrel with Pope.
