1774 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1774.

Events

*February 22 – The English legal case of ''Donaldson v Beckett'' is decided in the House of Lords, denying the continued existence of a perpetual common law copyright and holding that copyright is a creation of statute and can be limited in its duration. This does permit authors to claim copyright on their own works.
*September 14 – A new Stadsschouwburg (municipal theatre) in Amsterdam opens with the première of Lucretia Wilhelmina van Merken's tragedy ''Jacob Simonszoon de Ryk''.
*September 29 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's semi-autobiographical epistolary novel ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (''Die Leiden des jungen Werthers'') (written January – March) is published anonymously in Leipzig, Germany; it is influential in the ''Sturm und Drang'' movement and Romanticism.
*''unknown dates''
**After the destruction of the Schloss Weimar by fire, Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, forms a commission for its reconstruction directed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
**James Lackington begins in the London bookselling business.
**Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider becomes secretary to Richard François Philippe Brunck.
**The National and University Library of Slovenia in Ljubljana is established as the Lyceum Library, from the remains of the dissolved Jesuit library and several monastery libraries.
**Alberto Fortis publishes ''Viaggio in Dalmazia'' ("Journey to Dalmatia") and starts Morlachism.

New books

Fiction

*Jeremy Bentham – ''The White Bull''
* Henry Brooke – ''Juliet Grenville''
*Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – ''The Sorrows of Young Werther''
*Charles Johnstone – ''The History of Arsaces''
*''The Newgate Calendar''
*Christoph Martin Wieland – ''Die Abderiten, eine sehr wahrscheinliche Geschichte'' (The Abderites: A Very Probable Story)

Children

*Johann Bernhard Basedow – ''Elementarwerk'' (first of four volumes)

Drama

*Miles Peter Andrews – ''The Election''
*John Burgoyne – ''The Maid of the Oaks''
*George Colman the Elder – ''The Man of Business''
*Richard Cumberland – '' The Note of Hand''
*Charles Dibdin – ''The Waterman''
*Alexander Dow – ''Sethona''
*Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – '' Clavigo''
* Hugh Kelly – ''The Romance of an Hour''
*Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz – ''The Tutor (Der Hofmeister)''
*Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos – ''El delincuente honrado''

Poetry

* James Beattie – ''The Minstrel'', volume 2
*William Dunkin – ''Poetical Works''
*Oliver Goldsmith – ''Retaliation''
*Richard Graves – ''The Progress of Gallantry''
*William Mason – ''An Heroic Postscript to the Public''
*Hannah More – ''The Inflexible Captive''
*Samuel Jackson Pratt (as Courtney Melmoth) – ''The Tears of A Genius, occasioned by the Death of Dr. Goldsmith''
*Henry James Pye – ''Farringdon Hill''
* Mary Scott – ''The Female Advocate''
* Candido Maria Trigueros – ''El poeta filósofo o Poesías filosóficas en verso pentámetro''
* William Whitehead – ''Plays and Poems, by William Whitehead, Esq. Poet Laureat''

Non-fiction

*Giacomo Casanova – ''Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia''
* Mary Deverell – ''Sermons''
*Alberto Fortis – ''Viaggio in Dalmazia''
*Martin Gerbert – ''De cantu et musica sacra''
*Oliver Goldsmith
**''The Grecian History''
**''An History of the Earth and Animated Nature''
*Henry Home – ''Sketches of the History of Man''
* John Hutchins (died 1773) – ''The History and Antiquities of Dorset''
*Thomas Jefferson – ''A Summary View of the Rights of British America''
*Samuel Johnson – ''The Patriot''
*Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz – ''The History of Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina'' (English translation of ''Histoire de la Louisiane'' (1758) in 1 vol.)
*Joseph Priestley – ''Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air''
* William Richardson – ''A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters''
*Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes – ''Discurso sobre el fomento de la industria popular''
*Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield – ''Letters to his Son''
*Sugita Genpaku – ''Kaitai Shinsho'' (解体新書, "New Text on Anatomy", Japanese translation of ''Ontleedkundige Tafelen'')
*Horace Walpole – ''A Description of Strawberry-Hill''
*Thomas Warton – ''The History of English Poetry'', volume 1
*John Wesley – ''Thoughts upon Slavery''

Births

*January 1 – Pietro Giordani, Italian translator, scholar and writer (died 1848)
*February 24 – Archibald Constable, Scottish publisher (died 1827)
*July 14 – Francis Lathom, Dutch-born English Gothic novelist and dramatist (died 1832)
*August 12 – Robert Southey, English poet and Poet Laureate (died 1843)

Deaths

*April 4 – Oliver Goldsmith, Irish dramatist (born 1728/1730)
*April 28 – Gottfried Lengnich, German/Polish historian (born 1689)
*September 17 – Abraham Langford, English auctioneer and playwright (born 1711)
*October 16 – Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet (head injury, born 1750)BBC Two: Writing Scotland.
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*''unknown date'' – Catherine Michelle de Maisonneuve, French editor and writer

References

{{Year in literature article categories

Years of the 18th century in literature