1774 in literature
Encyclopedia
Events
- The First Continental CongressFirst Continental CongressThe First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts by the...
in America. - Joseph PriestleyJoseph PriestleyJoseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
refines oxygenOxygenOxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
. - Johann Gottlob SchneiderJohann Gottlob SchneiderJohann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider was a German classicist and naturalist.-Biography:Schneider was born at Collm in Saxony...
becomes secretary to Richard François Philippe BrunckRichard François Philippe BrunckRichard François Philippe Brunck was a French classical scholar.-Biography:Brunck was born in Strasbourg, France, educated at the Jesuits' College in Paris, and took part in the Seven Years' War as military commissary. At the age of thirty he returned to Strasbourg to resume his studies,...
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New books
- Jeremy BenthamJeremy BenthamJeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
- The White Bull - Henry Brooke - Juliet Grenville
- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
- The Sorrows of Young WertherThe Sorrows of Young WertherThe Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary and loosely autobiographical novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774; a revised edition of the novel was published in 1787... - Charles JohnstoneCharles JohnstoneCharles Johnstone , novelist. Prevented by deafness from practising at the Irish Bar, he went to India, where he was proprietor of a newspaper. He wrote one successful book, Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea, a somewhat sombre satire, and some others now utterly forgotten.-External links:...
- The History of Arsaces - The Newgate CalendarThe Newgate CalendarThe Newgate Calendar, subtitled The Malefactors' Bloody Register, was a popular work of improving literature in the 18th and 19th centuries....
New drama
- Miles Peter AndrewsMiles Peter AndrewsMiles Peter Andrews was an 18th century English playwright, gunpowder manufacturer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1796 to 1814.-Biography:...
- The Election - John BurgoyneJohn BurgoyneGeneral John Burgoyne was a British army officer, politician and dramatist. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several battles, mostly notably during the Portugal Campaign of 1762....
- The Maid of the OaksThe Maid of the OaksThe Maid of the Oaks is a comedy play by the British playwright and soldier John Burgoyne. It was first staged by David Garrick at Drury Lane Theatre on 5 November 1774. The set designs were by the artist Philip James de Loutherbourg. It was Burgoyne's first work, and he went on to write three... - George Colman the ElderGeorge Colman the ElderGeorge Colman was an English dramatist and essayist, usually called "the Elder", and sometimes "George the First", to distinguish him from his son, George Colman the Younger....
- The Man of Business - Charles DibdinCharles DibdinCharles Dibdin was a British musician, dramatist, novelist, actor and songwriter. The son of a parish clerk, he was born in Southampton on or before 4 March 1745, and was the youngest of a family of 18....
- The Waterman - Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
- ClavigoClavigo (play)Clavigo is a five-act tragedy written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1774. The lead role is taken by Beaumarchais. The play was written in just eight days in May 1774. It was published by July 1774 and is the first printed work to which Goethe put his own name, although the play was received... - Thomas Hull - Henry the Second
- Hugh Kelly - The Romance of an Hour
Poetry
- James BeattieJames Beattie (writer)Professor James Beattie FRSE was a Scottish poet, moralist and philosopher.He was born the son of a shopkeeper and small farmer at Laurencekirk in the Mearns, and educated at Aberdeen University. In 1760, he was appointed Professor of moral philosophy there as a result of the interest of his...
- The Minstrel, volume 2 - William DunkinWilliam DunkinWilliam Dunkin, D.D. , was an Irish poet.-Life:William Dunkin was born in Dublin in around 1709. His parents died when he was young and he was left in early life to the charge of Trinity College, Dublin, by an aunt who left her property to the college with the condition that it should provide for...
- Poetical Works - Oliver GoldsmithOliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
- Retaliation - Richard GravesRichard GravesRichard Graves was an English minister, poet, and novelist.Born at Mickleton Manor, Mickleton, Gloucestershire, to Richard Graves, gentleman, and his wife, Elizabeth, Graves was a student at Abingdon School and Pembroke College, Oxford...
- The Progress of Gallantry - William MasonWilliam Mason (poet)William Mason was an English poet, editor and gardener.He was born in Hull and educated at Hull Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1754 and held a number of posts in the church....
- An Heroic Postscript to the Public - Hannah MoreHannah MoreHannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...
- The Inflexible Captive - Henry James PyeHenry James PyeHenry James Pye was an English poet. Pye was Poet Laureate from 1790 until his death. He was the first poet laureate to receive a fixed salary of £27 instead of the historic tierce of Canary wine Henry James Pye (20 February 1745 – 11 August 1813) was an English poet. Pye was Poet Laureate...
- Farringdon Hill - Mary ScottMary Scott (poet)Mary Scott , poet, was born in Somerset, England.Scott's father was a linen draper. Not much else is known about her life before the publication of The Female Advocate, dedicated to her friend Anne Steele, in 1774...
- The Female Advocate - William WhiteheadWilliam Whitehead__FORCETOC__William Whitehead was an English poet and playwright. He became Poet Laureate in 1757 after Thomas Gray declined the position.-Life:...
- Plays and Poems, by William Whitehead, Esq. Poet Laureat
Non-fiction
- Giacomo CasanovaGiacomo CasanovaGiacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie , is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century...
– Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia - Joseph Cradock - Village Memoirs
- Martin GerbertMartin GerbertMartin Gerbert , German theologian, historian and writer on music, belonged to the noble family of Gerbert von Hornau, and was born at Horb am Neckar, Württemberg, on the 12th of August 1720....
– De cantu et musica sacra - Oliver GoldsmithOliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
- The Grecian History- - An History of the Earth and Animated Nature
- Henry Home - Sketches of the History of Man
- Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
- A Summary View of the Rights of British AmericaA Summary View of the Rights of British AmericaA Summary View of the Rights of British America was a tract written by Thomas Jefferson in 1774, before the U.S. Declaration of Independence, in which he laid out for delegates to the First Continental Congress, a set of grievances against the King, especially against his response to the Boston... - Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
- The Patriot - Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz - The History of Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina; an English translation, in one volume, of Histoire de la Louisiane, published in 17581758 in literatureSee also: 1757 in literature, other events of 1758, 1759 in literature, list of years in literature.-Events:* Voltaire buys estate at Ferney.* Annual Register founded by Edmund Burke and Robert Dodsley....
- Joseph Priestly - Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
- William RichardsonWilliam Richardson (academic)William Richardson FRSE was a Scottish classicist and literary scholar.Born in Aberfoyle, Perthshire, he was the son of James Richardson, the Church of Scotland parish minister of the same parish in which William was first educated. William attended the University of Glasgow in 1757 where he...
- A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters - William Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield - Letters to his Son
- Horace Walpole - A Description of Strawberry-Hill
- Thomas WartonThomas WartonThomas Warton was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. From 1785 to 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England...
- The History of English Poetry - John WesleyJohn WesleyJohn Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
- Thoughts upon Slavery
Births
- January 1 - Pietro GiordaniPietro GiordaniPietro Giordani was an Italian writer, classical literary scholar, and a close friend of, and influence on, Giacomo Leopardi.- Biography :Born in Piacenza, Giordani originally set out to become a monk...
, translator, scholar and writer (died 1848) - February 24 - Archibald ConstableArchibald ConstableArchibald Constable was a Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer.He was born at Carnbee, Fife, as the son of the land steward to the Earl of Kellie. In 1788 Archibald was apprenticed to Peter Hill, an Edinburgh bookseller, but in 1795 he started in business for himself as a dealer in rare...
, publisher (died 1827) - August 12 - Robert SoutheyRobert SoutheyRobert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
, poet (died 1843)
Deaths
- April 4 - Oliver GoldsmithOliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
, dramatist (born 1728/1730) - April 28 - Gottfried LengnichGottfried LengnichGottfried Lengnich was a 18th century historian, lawyer and politician. He became known for writing the 9-volume History of Royal Prussia and for teaching Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last king of Poland.- Life :...
, historian (born 1689) - October 16 - Robert FergussonRobert FergussonRobert Fergusson was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson followed an essentially bohemian life course in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intellectual and cultural ferment as part of the Scottish enlightenment...
, poet (born 1750) (brain damage)