1751 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1751.

Events

• Denis Diderot's Encyclopedia first volume appears.
• In Vienna, court poet Metastasio writes the poem Il rè pastore, later used by Mozart to compose an opera seria.
• The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy becomes the first formally published modern cookbook.

New fiction

• John Cleland – Memoirs of a Coxcomb
• Francis Coventry – The History of Pompey the Little
• Henry Fielding – Amelia
• Eliza Haywood – The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless
• Robert Paltock – The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man
• Tobias Smollett – The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

Non-fiction

• John Arbuthnot – Miscellaneous Works (posthumous)
• Catharine Trotter Cockburn – The Works of Mrs. Catharine Cockburn
• John Gilbert Cooper – Cursory Remarks on Mr. Warburton's New Edition of Mr. Pope's Works
• Ignacio de Luzán – Memorias literarias de París
• Henry Fielding – An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers
• James Harris – Hermes
• Henry Home, Lord Kames – Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion
• David Hume – An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
• John Jortin – Remarks on Ecclesiastical History
• Alexander Pope – The Works of Alexander Pope (ed. William Warburton)
• John Wesley – Serious Thoughts upon the Perseverance of Saints
• Benjamin Whichcote – Works

Poetry

• Richard Owen Cambridge – The Scribleriad
• Thomas Cooke – An Ode on the Powers of Poetry
• Nathaniel Cotton – Visions in Verse
• Thomas Gray – Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
• Soame Jenyns – The Modern Fine Lady
• Mary Leapor – Poems

Newly printed drama

• David Mallet – Alfred (masque)
• Moses Mendes
  • Robin Hood
  • The Seasons
• Edward Moore – Gil Blas

Births

• February 20 – Johann Heinrich Voss, German poet and translator (died 1826)
• October 9 – Pierre Louis de Lacretelle, French political writer (died 1824)
• October 20 – Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish dramatist and politician (died 1816)
• Unknown dates
  • John Bowles, English political writer and lawyer (died 1819)
  • Luciano Comella, Spanish dramatist (died 1812)
  • Helen Craik, Scottish novelist and poet (died 1825)
  • Elisabetta Caminèr Turra, Venetian writer and translator (died 1796)
• Probable year of birth – Mary Scott, English poet (died 1793)

Deaths

• May 24 – William Hamilton, Scottish poet (born c. 1665)
• October 26 – Philip Doddridge, English nonconformist leader, educator and hymnwriter (born 1702)^[1]
• October 29 – Bartholomew Green, Boston printer (born 1701)
• December 12 – Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, English political philosopher (born 1678)

In literature

• Georgette Heyer – The Black Moth (1921 – her debut novel)
• Robert Louis Stevenson – Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751 (1886)

References