Angel Day
Angel Day was an English author and bookseller, likely born in the mid-sixteenth century. He began his career at a young age, becoming an apprentice to the bookseller Thomas Duxsell. Although it's uncertain if he completed his apprenticeship due to missing records, Day's most notable contribution to literature is "The English Secretorie," published in 1586. This work served as a guide for writing letters and was significant in promoting the importance of confidentiality for secretaries during the Elizabethan era. It also established standards for correspondence that influenced writing practices of the time. In addition to "The English Secretorie," Day wrote various elegies and biographies, some of which inspired other writers, but his legacy primarily rests on this influential manual. The exact date of his death remains unknown, but it is believed he passed away around the turn of the seventeenth century, likely in his fifties.
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Subject Terms
Angel Day
Nonfiction Writer, Autobiography Writer
- Born: fl. 1563-1595
- Birthplace: London, England
Biography
Angel Day was probably born around the middle of the sixteenth century. At the age of thirteen, he was apprenticed at the age to the bookseller Thomas Duxsell (also known as Thomas Duxwell), who was active in the Stationers Company from its charter in 1557. It is unknown, though, if Day completed his apprenticeship, since the register for 1575, when Day should have finished, has not been found. What is known is that his most famous work, The English Secretorie, a manual of instruction in letter writing, was published in 1586. This work was revised several times during his life; this was particularly necessary because it was so hastily published in its original form. Its greatest significance is that it urges Elizabethan secretaries to adhere to secrecy in conducting the affairs of their employers. The English Secretorie is also significant because it helped set epistolary standards for the time. Although he wrote numerous elegies and biographies of his contemporaries, some of which inspired Robert Greene, among others, history has remembered Day only for The English Secretorie. His death date is unknown, but since the last revision of The English Secretorie that he saw occurred in 1799, it is probable that Angel Day died around the age of fifty, sometime near the turn of the seventeenth century.