1747 in literature

This article presents lists of literary events and publications in 1747.

Events

• April - David Garrick becomes one of the managers of Drury Lane Theatre in London.
• June 21 - Licensing Act transfers responsibility for pre-production censorship of plays in Britain from the Master of the Revels to the Lord Chamberlain and restricts serious drama to the patent theatres.
• December 1 - Samuel Richardson's 2-volume epistolary novel Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady ("by the Editor of Pamela") begins publication in London from his own printshop.
• The Załuski Library is established in Warsaw.

New books

• William Blackstone - The Pantheon (attrib)
• Thomas Carte - A General History of England
• Denis Diderot - La Promenade du sceptique (completed; not published until 1830)
• William Dunkin - Boetia
• Thomas Edward - A Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespear
• Henry Fielding, as "John Trott Plaid" - The Jacobite's Journal (periodical)
• Sarah Fielding - Familiar Letters Between the Principal Characters in David Simple (in defense against unauthorized continuations)
• Samuel Foote - The Roman and English Comedy Consider'd
• Philip Francis - A Poetical Translation of the Works of Horace
• Hannah Glasse - The Art of Cookery
• Madame de Graffigny - Letters from a Peruvian Woman
• Henry Home, Lord Kames - Essays Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities
• Samuel Johnson - The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language
• Charlotte Lennox - Poems
• David Mallet - Amyntor and Theodora
• William Mason - Musaeus: A monody to the memory of Pope (an imitation of Milton's Lycidas)
• William Memoth, the younger - The Letters of Pliny the Consul
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu - Six Town Eclogues
• Josiah Ralph - A Miscellany
• Samuel Richardson - Clarissa vol. i - ii
• William Shakespeare - The Works of Shakespear (edited by William Warburton)
• Tobias Smollett - Reproof
• Joseph Spence - Polymetis
• Laurence Sterne - The Case of Elijah and the Widow of Zerephath
• Voltaire - Zadig (in original form as Memnon)
• Horace Walpole - A Letter to the Whigs
• Joseph Warton - Ranelagh House
• Thomas Warton - The Pleasures of Melancholy
• Juan de Iriarte - Discurso sobre la imperfección de los diccionarios
• Diego de Torres Villarroel - Desengaños razonables para sacudir el polvo del espanto

New drama

• John Cunningham - Love in a Mist
• Samuel Foote - The Diversions of the Morning or, A Dish of Chocolate
• David Garrick - Miss in Her Teens
• Carlo Goldoni - The Venetian Twins (I due gemelli veneziani)
• Benjamin Hoadly the younger - The Suspicious Husband
• Edward Moore - The Foundling
• Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Shōraku and Namiki Senryū I - Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (original version for bunraku puppet theatre)

Births

• January 11 – François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt French economics writer (died 1827)
• January 12 – Susanna Blamire, English dialect poet and songwriter (died 1794)
• January 15 – John Aikin, English biographer, activist and physician (died 1822)
• January – William Seward, English man of letters (died 1799)
• September 30 – John Mastin, English memoirist, local historian and cleric (died 1829)
• December 12 – Anna Seward, English poet (died 1809)

Deaths

• January 16 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes German poet (born 1680)
• August – Leonard Welsted, English poet (born 1688)
• November 17 – Alain-René Le Sage, French novelist and playwright (born 1668)
• November 22 – Joseph Trapp, poet, controversialist and translator (born 1679)