First modern full-length biography of scholar and member of late eighteenth-century intellectual elite.

The correspondence of John Dryden is the definitive edition of the letters of the most important playwright and poet of the late seventeenth century. He defined an age and his newly transcribed disparate correspondence is placed in the context of contemporaneous and current debates about literature, politics and religion. It is also the most important account of the relationship between an author and his bookseller of the time. The illustrated correspondence contains a full biographical, textual introduction and calendar of letters. It is transcribed diplomatically and structured chronologically, with contextualising sections about particular correspondences. The readership will be undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students and academics with an interest in seventeenth century literature, politics, religion and culture. The editor won the MLA Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters.