1737 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
… 1727 ^. 1728 ^. 1729 ^. 1730 ^. 1731 ^. 1732 ^. 1733 … 1734 1735 1736 -1737- 1738 1739 1740 … 1741 ^. 1742 ^. 1743 ^. 1744 ^. 1745 ^. 1746 ^. 1747 … In poetry: 1734 1735 1736 -1737- 1738 1739 1740
Related time period or subjects
… 1734 ^. 1735 ^. 1736 - 1737 - 1738 ^. 1739 ^. 1740 … … 1700s ^. 1710s ^. 1720s -1730s- 1740s ^. 1750s ^. 1760s … 17th century ^. 18th century ^. 19th century …
Art ^. Archaeology ^. Architecture ^. Literature ^. Music ^. Science +...

The year 1737 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

June 21 - The Theatrical Licensing Act is passed, introducing censorship to the London stage. Plays now require approval before production. The "legitimate drama" is limited to the theatres at Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Haymarket.
November 20 - Death of Queen Caroline, a significant patron of the arts.
The News Letter begins publication.
Richard Jago becomes curate of Snitterfield.

Anonymous - A Letter from Mrs. Jane Jones, alias Jenny Diver, in Drury Lane (on the life of a kept woman)
Philip Doddridge - Submission to Divine Providence in the Death of Children
Stephen Duck - The Vision
Jonathan Edwards - A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Works of God
Étienne Fourmont - Meditationes Sinicae
Richard Glover - Leonidas
Matthew Green - The Spleen
William Law - A Demonstration of the Gross and Fundamental Errors of a Late Book (an answer to Benjamin Hoadly from 1735)
William Oldys - The British Librarian
Alexander Pope - Horace His Ode to Venus
- - The Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, Imitated
- - Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope, and Several of his Friends (authorized)
- - The First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, Imitated
- - The Works of Alexander Pope vols. v-vi
Elizabeth Rowe - Devout Exercises of the Heart
William Shenstone - Poems
Jonathan Swift - A Proposal for Giving Badges to the Beggars in all the Parishes of Dublin

January 29 - Thomas Paine, free thinker and revolutionary (died 1809)
April 27 - Edward Gibbon (died 1794)
unknown date - Frances Abington, actress, a leading exponent of Shakespeare and Sheridan (died 1815)