For Joseph Addison or the Anglo-Irish playwright, see Isaac Bickerstaffe Joseph Addison, the Kit-cat portrait, circa 1703-1712, by Godfrey Kneller. ... This article is about the Irish playwright; for the pseudonym used by Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, and Jonathan Swift, see Isaac Bickerstaff. ...

Isaac Bickerstaff Esq was a pseudonym used by Jonathan Swift as part of a hoax to predict the death of then famous Almanac–maker, astrologer, and quack John Partridge. Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, and A Tale of a Tub. ... An almanac (also spelled almanack, especially in Commonwealth English) is an annual publication containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar. ... An astrological chart (or horoscope) _ Y2K Chart — This particular chart is calculated for January 1, 2000 at 12:01:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time in New York City, New York, USA. (Longitude: 074W0023 - Latitude: 40N4251) Astrology (from Greek: αστρολογία = άστρον, astron, star + λόγος, logos, word) is... John Partridge (January 18, 1644 (OS) – March 29, 1708) was an English astrologer, discredited by Jonathan Swift, writing under the name of Isaac Bickerstaff. ...

“All Fools Day” (now known as April Fools Day which falls on the 1st of April) was Swift’s favorite of holidays and he often used this day to aim his satirically biting wit at non-believers in an attempt to “make sin and folly bleed.” Disgruntled by Partridge’s sarcastic attack about the “infallible Church” written in his 1708 issue of Merlinus Almanac, Swift projected carefully 3 letters and one Eulogy as an elaborate plan to “predict” Partridge’s “infallible death” to be revealed on April 1st, All Fools Day. — Mark Twain April Fools Day or All Fools Day is a notable day, though not of its own right a holiday, celebrated in many countries on April 1. ...

The first of the three letters, Predictions for the Year 1708, published in January of 1708, predicts, among other things, the death of Partridge by a “raging fever.” The second letter, The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff’s Predictions, published in March of 1708, Swift writes not as Bickerstaff but as a “man employed in the Revenue” where he “confirms” the imaginary Bickerstaff’s prediction. To accompany The Accomplishments Swift also publishes a Eulogy for Partridge in which, typical of Swift’s satire, he blames not only Partridge, but those who purchase the Almanacs as well: A eulogy is a funeral oration given in tribute to a person or people who have recently died. ...

The hoax, gaining immense popularity, plagued Partridge till the real end of his life. Mourners, who believed him to be dead, often kept him awake at night crying outside his window. Accounts of an undertaker arriving at his house to arrange drapes for the mourning, an elegy being printed and even a gravestone being carved, all culminate to Partridge publishing a letter in hopes to have a last word on the matter and proclaim (and reclaim) himself as living. In 1709 Swift, writing as Bickerstaff for the last time, publishes A Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff in which he abandons any real attempt to maintain the hoax. Bickerstaff counter argues Partridges letter of proclamation disputing, “ They were sure no man alive ever to writ such damned stuff as this.” He goes on to sarcastically reason that “death is defined by all Philosophers [as a] separation of the soul and body. [Partridge’s wife] has gone about for some time to every Alley in the neighborhood…that her husband had neither life nor soul in him.”

Richard Steele bolstered the release of his new paper The Tatler by naming the fictitious Isaac Bickerstaff Esq. as editor, and although largely written by Steele himself, had occasional contributions from Jonathan Swift. Other persons called Richard Steele include Richard Steele, the boxing referee, and Richard Steele, the American magican and illusionist. ... Tatler is a British magazine, originally founded in 1709 by Richard Steele. ...