1759 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1759.

Events

*By January 15 – Voltaire's satirical novella ''Candide, ou l'Optimisme'' is published simultaneously in five countries.
* January 15 – The British Museum opens in London.
* March 5 – Denis Diderot's ''Encyclopédie'' is proscribed by the Vatican and (on March 8) temporarily suppressed by the French government. The ban is lifted in September to allow publication of a revised version.
*July 27 – The earliest known professional performance of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' in North America (in Garrick's version) is given by the American Company in Philadelphia, with Lewis Hallam Jr. as Hamlet.
*August 12 – In the Seven Years' War Battle of Kunersdorf, the German poet Major Ewald Christian von Kleist is fatally injured.
*December – Laurence Sterne has the first two volumes of his comic metafictional novel ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'' printed in York, in a shop owned by Ann Ward.
*December 22 – The writer and critic William Warburton is nominated Anglican Bishop of Gloucester.
*''unknown dates''
**Rev. Hugh Blair begins to teach a course on the principles of literary composition at the University of Edinburgh, the first held in the field of English literature.
**Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch becomes a professor of rhetoric and poetry at the University of Jena.

New books

Fiction

*Anonymous – ''The History of Some of the Penitents in the Magdalen-House'' (dated 1760)
*Sarah Fielding – ''The History of the Countess of Dellwyn''
* Samuel Johnson – ''The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia'' (on Wikisource).
*Gotthold Lessing – ''Fables''
* Madame Riccoboni – ''Lettres de Milady Juliette Catesby''
* William Rider – ''Candidus'' (translation of ''Candide'')
*Laurence Sterne – ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'', vols 1–2
*Voltaire – '' Candide''

Drama

* William Hawkins – ''Cymbeline'' (adapted from William Shakespeare)
* Arthur Murphy – ''The Orphan of China''
*James Townley – ''High Life Below Stairs''

Poetry

* Samuel Butler – ''The Genuine Remains'' (collected works)
*Edward Capell – '' Prolusions''
* John Gilbert Cooper – ''Ver-Vert'' (transl.)
*William Mason – ''Caractacus''
* Augustus Montague Toplady – ''Poems on Sacred Subjects''

Non-fiction

*Franz Aepinus – ''Tentamen Theoriae Electricitatis et Magnetismi'' (An Attempt at a Theory of Electricity and Magnetism)
*Edmund Burke – ''The Annual Register''
*Angélique du Coudray – ''Abrégé de l'art des accouchements'' (The Art of Obstetrics)
* Alexander Gerard – ''An Essay on Taste''
* Oliver Goldsmith
**''The Bee'' (periodical solely by Goldsmith)
**''An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe''
*David Hume – ''The History of England, Under the House of Tudor''
* Richard Hurd – ''Moral and Political Dialogues''
*Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon – ''The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon Written by Himself''
*Rai Chatar Man Kayath – '' Chahar Gulshan''
* William Robertson – ''The History of Scotland during the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James''
* Adam Smith – ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments''
* Arthur Young – ''Reflections on the Present State of Affairs at Home and Abroad''
*Edward Young – ''Conjectures on Original Composition''

Births

* January 25 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet writing in Braid Scots and English (died 1796)
* March 5 – John Jamieson, Scottish lexicographer (died 1838)
*March 29 – Alexander Chalmers, Scottish biographer and editor (died 1834)
* April 27 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English political writer and advocate of women's rights (died 1797)
*May 4 (baptism) – Isabella Kelly, Scottish novelist and poet (died 1857)
*June 17 – Helen Maria Williams, English novelist, poet and translator from French (died 1827)
*October 13 – Mary Hays, English writer and advocate of women's rights (died 1843)
*November 10 – Friedrich Schiller, German poet and dramatist (died 1805)
*December 25 – Richard Porson, English classicist (died 1808)
*''unknown date'' – Deen Mahomet, author of first book in English by an Indian (died 1851)

Deaths

*June 12 – William Collins, English poet (born 1721)
*June 26 – Arthur Young, English religious writer and cleric (born 1693)
*July 27 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French philosopher (born 1698)
*July 29 – Kata Bethlen, Hungarian memoirist and correspondent (born 1700)
* August 16 – Eugene Aram, English philologist and murderer, hanged (born 1704)
*August 24 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet (born 1715)
*September 5 – Lauritz de Thurah, Danish architectural historian (born 1706)
*October 7 – Joseph Ames, English bibliographer and antiquary (born 1680)
*''unknown date'' – Francis Coventry, English clergyman and novelist (born 1725)
*''probable'' – Anton Wilhelm Amo, West African-born German philosopher (born 1703)

References

{{Year in literature article categories

Years of the 18th century in literature