This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1772.
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.
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 – Completion of publication of the Bible in the Manx language.
Thomas Paine produces his first published work, a political article entitled Case of the Officers of Excise.
Gottfried August Bürger obtains a magistracy and is reconciled with his family.
Charles Burney tours Europe, researching for his History of Music.
Hannah More arrives in London.
An Armenian language press is set up in Chennai, India.
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
György Bessenyei – Ágis tragédiája
Richard Cumberland – The Fashionable Lover
Samuel Foote – The Nabob
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
Vicente Garcia de la Huerta – Raquel
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
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
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)"
José Cadalso – Los eruditos a la violeta
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)
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)
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)
1772 in literature Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA