Kit-Cat Club [ Association / Associational culture / Politics & Society ]
… in order to create a patronage network that was bound at either end to his firm. An all-male club, growing to consist of authors, peers, MPs, military figures and connoisseurs, the Kit-Cat never convened without Tonson’s presence. The Kit-Cat … groups, centred on Tonson. First Lord Somers, as already mentioned, then William Congreve (1670-1729) who was Tonson’s author and lodger by 1693, then John Vanbrugh (1664-1726) who met Congreve and Tonson after the success of his first play … literary members as an informal editorial board for his series Miscellany Poems and used the Club’s hospitality to fix author’s loyalties prior to the 1709 Copyright Act. Several literary productions were also direct collaborations between …
Friendship | Merchants | Patronage | Whigs
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