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Hannah More (and philanthropic sociability) [ Religion & Philanthropy / Politics & Society / Religious Belief ]

… was the sharing of literary interests: called ‘Nine' 3  by Garrick, More also wrote poems, essays and stories, and her celebrity fed on that of the other members of the bluestocking circle. Conversely, as part of the second generation of … made her free, thanks to her recent financial independence, to set up her own social network and she used her London celebrity to create an original model of sociability that was essentially philanthropic. In so doing, she opened up new …

Mary Berry [ Art and Literature ]

… the entertainments provided by some aristocratic places such as Devonshire House and Holland House. Although ‘no great celebrity’ 1 , Berry, like other salonnières, knew a large number of literati, politicians, and artists, and through her …

London theatres (and their audiences) [ Sports & Leisure ]

… respectable sociability, and capitalising on their commercial value, as they would attract a more diverse clientele. The celebrity of female players was also the focus of new debates. Performers such as Elizabeth Barry and Anne Bracegirdle … Wit and Morality in the Restoration Comedy of Manners, Athens, University of Georgia Press, 1994. 11 . On the issue of celebrity, see for example B. Cowan, ‘News, Biography, and Eighteenth-Century Celebrity’, Oxford Handbooks Online, 1 September 2016 (DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.013.132 accessed 13 December …

David Hume [ Philosophy ]

… of Letters While Hume’s short autobiography testifies to the lack of success of his works, it reveals how Hume courted celebrity in the Republic of Letters. He lamented the public’s absence of engagement with his works, giving almost a … There is no doubt a part of posture in such self-portrayal. A friend of Hume’s, reflecting on the fact that Hume was a celebrity of the Republic of Letters, wrote to him: ‘What you say of your being detested as a Scotsman & dispised [sic] … the link between philosophical retreat and engagement with the world, between the quest for knowledge and the quest for celebrity, between philosophers and readers as well. And it is the genre of the essay, which provides exactly this mode …

Menageries [ Sports & Leisure / Politics & Society / Social interaction ]

… by 1792 also contained some of the first kangaroos to arrive in Britain, including a female zebra who quickly became a celebrity for her ungovernable behaviour and vicious personality. Notably, crowds flocked to see Queen Charlotte’s zebra …