1772 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1772.

Events

*March – Gottfried August Bürger obtains a magistracy and is reconciled with his family.
*May 7 – The Stadsschouwburg theatre in Amsterdam is destroyed by fire.
*June
**At Marseilles, the Marquis de Sade embarks on an orgy, as a result of which he is convicted ''in absentia'' of sodomy and poisoning and receives a death sentence; he escapes.
**Charles Burney tours Europe, researching for his ''History of Music''.
*September 12 – The Göttinger Hainbund of German poets is formed at a midnight ritual in an oaken grove.
*November 10 – The wife of poet Pedro Correia Garção obtains an order for his release from prison, the very day of his death.
*November 28 – Publication of the Bible in the Manx language is completed.
*''unknown dates''
**Thomas Paine produces his first published work, a political article entitled ''Case of the Officers of Excise''.
**Hannah More arrives in London.
**An Armenian language press is set up in Chennai, India.

New books

Fiction

*Elizabeth Bonhôte – ''The Rambles of Mr Frankly, Published by his Sister''
*Jacques Cazotte – '' Le Diable Amoureux''
*Robert Fergusson – ''The Daft Days''
*Sarah Scott – ''The Test of Filial Duty''
* David Williams – ''Letter to David Garrick''

Drama

*György Bessenyei – ''Ágis tragédiája''
*Richard Cumberland – '' The Fashionable Lover''
*Samuel Foote – ''The Nabob''
* Vicente Garcia de la Huerta – ''Raquel''
*David Garrick – '' The Irish Widow''
*Gotthold Lessing – ''Emilia Galotti''
*Louis-Sébastien Mercier
**''Le faux ami'' (The False Friend)
**''Jean Hennuyer, évêque de Lisieux'' (written)
* Arthur Murphy – ''The Grecian Daughter''

Poetry

*Mark Akenside – ''Poems''
*Thomas Chatterton – ''The Execution of Sir Charles Bawdin''
* William Jones – ''Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages''
*William Kenrick – ''Love in the Suds''
*William Mason – ''The English Garden''
* Christopher Smart – ''Hymns, for the Amusement of Children''
*George Alexander Stevens – ''Songs''

Non-fiction

*'' Alphabetum grandonico-malabaricum sive samscrudonicum'' (with a preface by Giovanni Cristofano Amaduzzi)
*The ''Encyclopédie'' in 28 volumes by Diderot, d'Alembert, and many others
*Moses Browne – ''The Excellency of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ''
*José Cadalso – ''Los eruditos a la violeta''
* William Chambers – ''A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening''
* Junius (possibly Philip Francis) – ''Junius: Stat Nominis Umbra''
*Francis Grose – ''The Antiquities of England and Wales''
*Johann Gottfried Herder – ''Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache (Treatise on the Origin of Language)''
* Richard Hurd – ''An Introduction to the Study of Prophecies...''
*Carsten Niebuhr – ''Beschreibung von Arabien''
*Joseph Priestley – ''The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light, and Colours''
* Francis Stoughton Sullivan (died 1766) – ''An Historical Treatise on the Feudal Law, and the Constitution and Laws of England''
* Catherine Talbot – ''Essays on Various Subjects''
*Wilhelm Abraham Teller – ''Wörterbuch des Neuen Testamentes zur Erklärung der christlichen Lehre (Dictionary of the New Testament for the Explanation of Christian Doctrine)''

Births

*January 15 – James Ballantyne, Scottish editor and publisher (died 1833)
*March 10 – Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, German poet, literary critic, philosopher and philologist (died 1829)
*April 11 – Manuel José Quintana, Spanish poet (died 1857)
*May 2 – Novalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg), German poet and philosopher (died 1801)
*August 29 – Sarah Burney, English novelist (died 1844)
*September 27 – Sándor Kisfaludy, Hungarian poet (died 1844)
*October 21 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet (died 1834)
*November 17 – Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers, French dramatist (died 1827)
*November 28 – Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann, German classical commentator and philologist (died 1848)
*December 6
** John Carr, English travel writer and lawyer (died 1832)
** Henry Cary, Gibraltar-born Irish author, editor and translator (died 1844)
*''unknown date'' – Maria Riddell, West Indies-born poet, naturalist and travel writer resident in Scotland (died 1808)
*''probable'' – Charlotte Dacre, English Gothic novelist (died 1825)

Deaths

*March 26 – Charles Pinot Duclos, French novelist and encyclopedist (born 1704)
*March 29 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish philosopher (born 1688)
*May 22 – Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (born 1687)
*June – Thomas Whately, English politician and writer (born 1726)
*June 18 – Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German philosopher (born 1706)
*October 7 – John Woolman, American abolitionist author (smallpox, born 1720)Slaughter, Thomas P. (2008). ''The Beautiful Soul of John Woolman, Apostle of Abolition,'' New York: Hill and Wang, p. 378
*October 10 – William Wilkie, Scottish poet (ague, born 1721)
*November 10 – Pedro Correia Garção, Portuguese poet (born 1724)
*''unknown dates''
** Thomas Hawkins, English editor and cleric (born 1729)
**Margareta Momma, Swedish editor and writer (born 1702)

References

{{Year in literature article categories

Years of the 18th century in literature