1740 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
… 1730 ^. 1731 ^. 1732 ^. 1733 ^. 1734 ^. 1735 ^. 1736 … 1737 1738 1739 -1740- 1741 1742 1743 … 1744 ^. 1745 ^. 1746 ^. 1747 ^. 1748 ^. 1749 ^. 1750 … In poetry: 1737 1738 1739 -1740- 1741 1742 1743
Related time period or subjects
… 1737 ^. 1738 ^. 1739 - 1740 - 1741 ^. 1742 ^. 1743 … … 1710s ^. 1720s ^. 1730s -1740s- 1750s ^. 1760s ^. 1770s … … 17th century ^. 18th century ^. 19th century …
Art ^. Archaeology ^. Architecture ^. Literature ^. Music ^. Science +...

The year 1740 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

[edit] Events

Johann Jakob Bodmer - Von dem Wunderbaren in der Poesie
Colley Cibber - An Apology for the Life of Mr Colley Cibber, Comedian (begins a storm of protest)
John Dyer - The Ruins of Rome
Richard Glover - Admiral Hosier's Ghost
David Hume - An Abstract of . . . A Treatise of Human Nature
William Law - An Earnest and Serious Answer to Dr. Trapp's Discourse
- - An Appeal to all that Doubt, or Disbelieve the Truths of the Gospel
William Oldys - The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh
Christopher Pitt - The Aeneid of Virgil
William Pulteney - An Epistle from L--- to Lord C-------d (supposedly from Thomas Coke to Lord Chesterfield)
Samuel Richardson - Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke - The Idea of a Patriot King (published after the intervention or interference of Alexander Pope)
William Stukeley - Stonehenge: A temple restor'd to the British Druids
Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve -La jeune américaine, et les contes marins
William Warburton - A Vindication of Mr. Pope's Essay on Man
George Whitefield - A Short Account of God's Dealings with the Reverend George Whitefield

June 2 - Marquis de Sade (died 1814)
June 6 - Louis-Sébastien Mercier, dramatist (died 1814)
September 2 - Johann Georg Jacobi, poet (died 1814)
September 12 - Johann Heinrich Jung (Heinrich Stilling), novelist (died 1817)
October 29 - James Boswell (died 1795)
November 4 - Augustus Montague Toplady, poet, theologian and hymn-writer (died 1778)
date unknown
- Giovanni Cristofano Amaduzzi, philologist (died 1782)
- Juan Andrés, historian (died 1817)
- Jean Louis Delolme, constitutional writer (died 1806)
- Charlotte Brooke

January - John Adams, poet (born 1704)
April 23 - Thomas Tickell, poet (born 1685)
May 15 - Ephraim Chambers, encyclopaedist (born about 1680)
June 1 - Samuel Werenfels, theologian (born 1657)
October 5 - Johann Philipp Baratier, scholar (born 1721)
date unknown
- Johann Georg Abicht, theologian (born 1672)
- Daniel Waterland, theologian (born 1683)
- Jane Bereton, poet