Robert Sanders (writer)
Robert Sanders, pseudonym Nathaniel Spencer, was a Scottish hack writer in London.
Life
The son of Thomas Sanders, he was born at Breadalbane, Scotland, and was apprenticed to a comb-maker. He taught himself some Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and taught in schools in the north of England.About 1760 Sanders came to London, and took to hack writing. A begging letter of 1768 mentions a wife and five young children. He haunted the London coffee-houses: the New England, St. Paul's, and New Slaughter's.
Sanders was a self-created LL.D., who quarreled with booksellers and patrons. He died of a pulmonary disorder, on 24 March 1783.
Works
Compilations by Sanders included:The Newgate Calendar, or Malefactor's Bloody Register, which came out in numbers, and was republished in five volumes.- Editorial work on the History of the Life of Henry II by George Lyttelton, 1st Baron LytteltonThe Complete English Traveller, or a New Survey and Description of England and Wales, containing a full account of what is curious and entertaining in the several counties, the isles of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey … and a description of Scotland. This work largely relied on John Ray, Daniel Defoe, Thomas Pennant, and similar authors.,The Christian's Divine Library, illustrated with Notes,. It satirised leading London nonconformist ministers, such as John Gill and Thomas Gibbons.