Locke originally wrote down his ideas in answer to his relative Edward Clarke, who asked how he should raise his son to grow up to be a gentleman. There was broad interest in this subject among a new group of property owners who had representation in their government and were neither poor nor idly rich. Locke’s letters to Clarke were first published anonymously in 1693, and then became Some Thoughts Concerning Education, which went through 24 editions by 1800, five of which Locke supervised before he died.