ABSTRACT
A London man called John Partridge, who claimed to be an astrologer, was publishing predictions in the form of almanacs, which prognostications annoyed Dean Swift because they were, he felt, simply Whig political propaganda. Accordingly, in 1708, Swift produced a rival almanac in which he forecast the death of Partridge on 29 March. Then on 30 March he published an eyewitness account of Partridge’s death together with a funeral elegy. Partridge indignantly protested and advertised in the papers that he was still alive. Swift retorted in a vindication proving that the poor man was really dead, and other writers took up the cry. In the end, no one believed the unhappy Partridge, and so, in effect, he ceased to exist.
