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Myers Literary Guide:
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The North-East
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JEAN PAUL MARAT (1743 - 1793) Marat was a medical man by profession and had worked on the continent and in London before coming in 1770 to Newcastle, where he practised for three years as a veterinary surgeon, though he is said to have accommodated humans also. He visited the city again in 1775 and may well have been familiar with the works of the Newcastle divine John 'Estimate' Brown (q.v.), while there. A Philosophical Essay on Man appeared in 1773 (in English). Though he had published scientific and philosophical tracts, Marat's first overtly political work Chains of Slavery published in Newcastle in 1774, was probably written there. By his own highly-coloured account, Marat had lived on black coffee and slept only two hours a night before completing the 65 chapters in three months - and had then slept for 13 days. The book is in English, which Marat knew well, though it relies heavily on earlier works. It purports to be: 'A work in which the clandestine and villainous attempts of Princes to ruin Liberty are pointed out, and the dreadful scenes of Despotism disclosed.' It earned him honorary membership of the patriotic societies of Berwick, Carlisle and Newcastle. The Newcastle Lit and Phil possesses a copy. The French edition of 1792 was very similar in content, so one may say that the Marat who frequented the Newcastle patriotic clubs and Robert Sand's circulating library in the Bigg Market, was the 'ami du peuple', the Marat of the Commune.
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