Joseph Addison was an English essayist who, with his friend Richard Steele, co-founded The Spectator, a daily paper read aloud and debated in the coffee houses of London. His clear, friendly essays about manners, books, and everyday life helped invent the modern magazine style of writing. He believed good writing should bring learning out of libraries and into ordinary conversation, and alongside his writing he rose to become one of Britain's most senior statesmen, serving as Secretary of State.