1787 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1787.

Events

*January 15 – Ann Ward marries William Radcliffe, gaining the surname by which she will be known as a writer of Gothic novels.
*April 16 – Royall Tyler's '' The Contrast'' becomes the first comedy written by an American citizen to be professionally produced, at the John Street Theatre (Manhattan).
*April 17 – The Edinburgh edition of Robert Burns' ''Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect'' is published by William Creech. It includes a Burns portrait by Alexander Nasmyth. The poet has great social success in the city's literary circles; 16-year-old Walter Scott meets him at the house of Adam Ferguson.
*June 1 – King George III of Great Britain issues a ''Proclamation for the Discouragement of Vice'', which can be used to prosecute obscene publications.
*June 27 – Just before midnight, Edward Gibbon completes ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' in the small summerhouse in his garden in Lausanne, Switzerland.
*July – Friedrich Schiller arrives in Weimar.
*November 21 – François-Joseph Talma makes his professional stage debut at the Comédie-Française as Seide, in Voltaire's ''Mahomet''.
*December 4 – Robert Burns meets Agnes Maclehose at a party given by Miss Erskine Nimmo.

New books

Fiction

*Elizabeth Bonhôte – ''Olivia, or, The Deserted Bride''
*Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai – ''Les Amours du chevalier de Faublas''
*Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (revised edition)
*Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse – ''Ardinghello and die glückseligen Inseln''
*Elizabeth Helme – ''Louisa; or the Cottage on the Moor''
*Johann Karl August Musäus – ''Volksmärchen der Deutschen'' (fifth volume)
*Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins – ''The Victim of Fancy''
*Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken – ''Abraham Blankaart''

Children

* François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil – ''Fanfan et Lolotte, ou Histoire de deux enfants abandonnés dans une île déserte'' (Fanfan and Lolotte, Story of Two Children Abandoned on a Desert Island)

Drama

*Pierre Beaumarchais – ''Tarare'' (opera)
*George Colman the Younger – ''Inkle and Yarico'' (comic opera)
*Richard Cumberland – ''The Country Attorney''
*Germaine de Staël – ''Jeanne Grey''
*Thomas Holcroft – ''Seduction''
* Harriet Lee – ''The New Peerage''
*Friedrich Schiller – '' Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien''
*Royall Tyler – '' The Contrast''

Poetry

Non-fiction

* Thomas Best – '' A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling''
*Mathurin Jacques Brisson – ''Pesanteur Spécifique des Corps''
*Ottobah Cugoano – ''Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species''
*(Sir) John Fenn (ed.) – The ''Paston Letters'' (''Original letters, written during the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III'')
*John Hawkins – ''Life of Samuel Johnson''
*''Scots Musical Museum'', vol. 1
*Mary Wollstonecraft – ''Thoughts on the Education of Daughters''

Births

*February 2 – Charles Etienne Boniface, French music teacher, playwright and journalist (died 1853)
*February 17 – George Mogridge ("Old Humphrey"), English children's writer and poet (died 1854)
*February 23 – Emma Willard, American teacher and writer (died 1870)
*April 26 – Ludwig Uhland, German poet (died 1862)
*May 29 – Konstantin Batyushkov, Russian poet, essayist and translator (died 1855)
*July 9 – Taliesin Williams, Welsh poet and author (died 1847)
*September 13 – John Adamson, English antiquary and expert on Portuguese (died 1855)
*November 4 – Edmund Kean, English actor (died 1833)
*November 15 – Richard Henry Dana Sr., American poet, critic and lawyer (died 1879)
*November 21 – Bryan Procter (Barry Cornwall), English poet (died 1874)
*December 16 – Mary Russell Mitford, English novelist (died 1855)

Deaths

*April 1 – Floyer Sydenham, English classical scholar and translator (born 1710)
*April 2 – Francisco Javier Clavijero, Mexican-born historian (born 1731)
*May 4 – Philip Skelton, Irish clergyman and writer (born 1707)
*June 19 – John Brown, Scottish theologian (born 1722)
*October 28 – Johann Karl August Musäus, German satirist and children's writer (born 1735)
*October 30 – Ferdinando Galiani, Italian economist (born 1728)
*November 3 – Robert Lowth, English poet, grammarian and bishop (born 1710)
*December 18 – Soame Jenyns, English poet and essayist (born 1704)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1787 In Literature

Years of the 18th century in literature