Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as Joseph Addison (1672-1719), half-length, in a brown jacket, pointing with his right hand at a shelf of books

Joseph Addison (1672-1719), English essayist, poet, and statesman, was educated at Charterhouse and Oxford. He first achieved prominence with The Campaign (1704), an epic celebrating the victory of Marlborough at Blenheim. The poem was commissioned by Lord Halifax, and its great success was instrumental in Addison's appointment in 1705 as Undersecretary of State and in 1709 as Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

However, it was as an essayist that Addison's most enduring fame was achieved, with contributions to periodicals including Tatler, The Spectator and The Guardian. It has been said that his writing raised the English essay to a degree of technical perfection never before achieved and never since surpassed.