This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1742.
December 2 – The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in print in the United States.
The Stockholm Gazette, founded by Peter Momma, begins publication.
Publisher Robert Foulis acquires his own printing press in Glasgow.
French typefounder Pierre Simon Fournier's Modèles des Caractères presents his system of point sizes for typography.
Pierre de Marivaux is elected to the Académie française.
Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon – Le Sopha, conte moral
Henry Fielding – Joseph Andrews
Eliza Haywood – The Virtuous Villager
Charles Jervas (misprinted as "Jarvis") – English translation of Don Quixote
Charlotte Charke – Tit for Tat
Charles Jennens – Messiah (libretto and music for Handel's piece)
José de Cañizares – El anillo de Giges
Ignacio de Luzán – La virtud coronada
William Collins – Persian Eclogues
Thomas Cooke – Original Poems
James Hammond – Love Elegies
James Merrick – The Destruction of Troy
William Shenstone – The School-Mistress
William Somervile – Field Sports
Charles Hanbury Williams – The Country Girl: An ode
Edward Young – Night Thoughts
José Gerardo Hervás, Jorge Pitillas – Sátira contra los malos escritores de este siglo
Colley Cibber – A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope (in re Pope's satirizing of Cibber)
Philip Doddridge – Evidences of Christianity
Pierre Simon Fournier – Modèles des Caractères
David Hume – Essays Moral and Political vol. ii
Colin Maclaurin – Treatise on Fluxions
John Oldmixon – Memoirs of the Press, Historical and Political
Horace Walpole and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams – The Lessons for the Day (satire on William Pulteney, Bolingbroke, and the "Patriot Whigs").
William Warburton – A Critical and Philosophical Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man
John Wesley
The Character of a Methodist
The Principles of a Methodist
George Whitefield – Nine Sermons
Ignacio de Luzán – Carta en defensa de España
Benito Jerónimo Feijoo – Cartas eruditas y curiosas
January 1 – Isaac Reed, English Shakespearean editor (died 1807)
March 25 – William Combe, English writer, poet and adventurer (died 1823)
June 25 – Johann Schweighäuser, German classical scholar (died 1830)
September 14 – James Wilson, American pamphleteer and publisher (died 1798)
October 6 – Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian author (died 1785)
Unknown date – Ralph Broome, English pamphleteer (died 1805)
Probable year of birth – Mihály Bakos (Miháo Bakoš), Slovene hymnist and Lutheran minister (died 1803)
March 23 – Jean-Baptiste Dubos, French author (born 1670)
April 27 – Nicholas Amhurst, English poet and political writer (born 1697)
July 9 – John Oldmixon, English historian (born 1673)
July 14 – Richard Bentley, English scholar and critic (born 1662)
July 19 – William Somervile, English poet (born 1675)
November 24 – Andrew Bradford, American publisher (born 1686)
1742 in literature Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA