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Patrick Pollak Rare Books

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Essays, Biographical, Critical, and Historical, Illustrative of the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian.

pp. iv, xiii, (i), (15)-470. Portrait frontispiece, 4 plates; (iv), 352. Period straight-grain morocco, blind-decorated elaborate vine-leaf borders to both boards. spines with raised bands and blind decorated panels, all edges gilt, book-labels of EDWARD B. TYLOR, a nice set. *These two volumes cover the contributions to the Tatler only. NATHAN DRAKE (15 January 1766 – 7 June 1836), English essayist and physician, was born in York, at the family home in Precentor's Court, as the son of Nathan Drake, an artist. He is known for a book summing up knowledge of Shakespeare available at the time. Drake was apprenticed to a doctor in York in 1780, and in 1786 proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he took his degree as MD in 1789. In 1790 he set up as a general practitioner at Sudbury, Suffolk, where he became an intimate friend with John Mason Good (died 1827). In 1792, Drake relocated to Hadleigh, where he died in 1836. An important medical work of Drake's is On the Use of Digitalis in Consumption (five papers published in the Medical and Physical Journal, London, 1799–1800). His Literary Hours (1798) were highly popular early in the 19th century (4th ed., 1820). Drake is also credited with discovering the merits of the poet Henry Neele. *SIR EDWARD BURNETT TYLOR FRAI (2 October 1832 – 2 January 1917) English anthropologist, and professor of anthropology.Tylor's ideas typify 19th-century cultural evolutionism. In his works Primitive Culture (1871) and Anthropology (1881), he defined the context of the scientific study of anthropology, based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Lyell. He believed that there was a functional basis for the development of society and religion, which he determined was universal. Tylor maintained that all societies passed through three basic stages of development: from savagery, through barbarism to civilization. Tylor is a founding figure of the science of social anthropology, and his scholarly works helped to build the discipline of anthropology in the nineteenth century. He believed that "research into the history and prehistory of man [.] could be used as a basis for the reform of British society." *The Tatler, a periodical launched in London by the essayist Sir Richard Steele in April 1709, appearing three times weekly until January 1711. At first its avowed intention was to present accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, of poetry, and of foreign and domestic news. These all were reported and "issued" from various London coffee and chocolate houses. In time The Tatler began to investigate manners and society, establishing its principles of ideal behaviour, its concepts of a perfect gentleman and gentlewoman, and its standards of good taste. Dueling, gambling, rakish behaviour, and coquettishness were criticized, and virtuous action was admired. Numerous anecdotes and stories gave point to the moral codes advanced. The periodical had an explicit Whig allegiance and was several times drawn into political controversy. The English periodical essay began its first flowering in The Tatler, reaching its full bloom in the hands of Joseph Addison. Addison seems to have made his first contribution to it in the 18th issue. Two months after The Tatler ceased publication, he and Steele launched the brilliant periodical The Spectator.