Satire

The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers

by Jonathan Swift

In 1708 Swift, writing as the astrologer Isaac Bickerstaff, predicted that the almanac-maker John Partridge would die on the 29th of March, and then published an account of his death. Partridge protested in print that he was still alive, and Bickerstaff replied with a vindication proving that he could not be. The joke went round London, and Steele borrowed the name of Isaac Bickerstaff for The Tatler the following year.

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Reading time

About 55 minutes

Where to find it

Lilliput

Edition

Project Gutenberg, eBook #1090. In the public domain in the United States.