Puneet Varma (Editor)

1774 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1774.

Contents

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 permits authors to claim copyright in their own works.
  • 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.
  • Following 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.
  • Approximate date – National and University Library of Slovenia in Ljubljana established as the Lyceum Library from the remains of the dissolved Jesuit library and several monastery libraries.

    • 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 history")

    • 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
  • Charles Dibdin – The Waterman
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Clavigo
  • Thomas Hull – Henry the Second
  • Hugh Kelly – The Romance of an Hour
  • 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
  • William Whitehead – Plays and Poems, by William Whitehead, Esq. Poet Laureat
  • Cándido María Trigueros – El poeta filósofo o Poesías filosóficas en verso pentámetro

    • Non-fiction

  • Giacomo Casanova – Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia
  • Joseph Cradock – Village Memoirs
  • Mary Deverell – Sermons
  • 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 (posthumous) – 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; an English translation, in one volume, of Histoire de la Louisiane, published in 1758
  • Joseph Priestley – Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
  • William Richardson – A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters
  • Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield – Letters to his Son
  • Sugita Genpaku – Kaitai Shinsho (New Text on Anatomy)
  • Horace Walpole – A Description of Strawberry-Hill
  • Thomas Warton – The History of English Poetry
  • John Wesley – Thoughts upon Slavery
  • Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes – Discurso sobre el fomento de la industria popular

    • 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)

    • References

    1774 in literature Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA