1770 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1770.

Events

• Göttinger Musenalmanach is launched by Johann Christian Dieterich.
• Johann Gottfried Herder meets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Strasbourg.

New books

• John Armstrong - Miscellanies
• James Beattie - An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth
• Edmund Burke - Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents
• William Duff - Critical Observations on the Writings of the Most Celebrated Geniuses in Poetry
• Edward Gibbon - Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of the Aeneid
• Oliver Goldsmith:
  • The Life of Thomas Parnell
  • Life of Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke
• Ukawsaw Gronniosaw - A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince
• Baron d'Holbach - The System of Nature
• Samuel Johnson - The False Alarm
• Immanuel Kant - Dissertation on the Form and Principles of the Sensible and the Intelligible World (De mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis, inaugural dissertation)
• Catharine Macaulay - Observations on a Pamphlet Entitled, Thoughts on the Present Discontents (in response to Burke)
• Louis-Sébastien Mercier - L'An 2440, rêve s'il en fut jamais
• Thomas Percy - Northern Antiquities
• Raynal - A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies^[1]
• Catherine Talbot - Reflections on the Seven Days of the Week
• Augustus Montague Toplady - A Letter to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley
• Voltaire - Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs
• Arthur Young - A Six Months Tour Through the North of England

New drama

Oh, What a Charming Thing's a Battle! "Oh, What a Charming Thing's a Battle!", from Charles Dibdin and Isaac Bickerstaff's The Recruiting Serjeant (1770). Sung by Leon Lishner. Problems playing this file? See media help.

• Pierre de Beaumarchais - Les Deux Amis
• Isaac Bickerstaffe - The Recruiting Serjeant
• Frances Brooke - Memoirs of the Marquis de St Forlaix
• George Colman the Elder - Man and Wife
• Johannes Ewald - Rolf Krage
• Samuel Foote - The Lame Lover
• Francis Gentleman - The Sultan
• John Hoole - Timanthes
• Hugh Kelly - A Word to the Wise
• Louis-Sébastien Mercier - Le Déserteur (written)
• George Alexander Stevens - The Court of Alexander
• Ramón de la Cruz - El rastro por la mañana
• Nicolás Fernandez de Moratín - Hormesinda
• [Tomás de Iriarte] - Hacer que hacemos

Poetry

• Michael Bruce - Poems on Several Occasions
• David Dalrymple - Ancient Scottish Poems
• Oliver Goldsmith - The Deserted Village
• William Mickle - Voltaire in the Shades
• William Woty - Works
• Alonso Verdugo, Earl of Torrepalma (ed. Juan José López de Sedano) - Deucalión
• [Nicolás Fernandez de Moratín] - Arte de las putas

Births

• February 16 (bapt.) – Barbara Hofland, English children's and schoolbook author (died 1844)
• March 20 – Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet (died 1843
• April 7 – William Wordsworth, English Romantic poet (died 1850
• October 2 – James Plumptre, English dramatist and cleric (died 1832)
• December 9 (bapt.) – James Hogg, "the Ettrick shepherd", Scottish poet and novelist (died 1835)
• Possible year – John Joseph Stockdale, English editor and publisher (died 1847)

Deaths

• July 2 – James Parker, American printer and publisher (born 1714)
• July 21 – Charlotta Frölich, Swedish poet and political writer (born 1698)
• August 24 – Thomas Chatterton, English poet and forger (suicide, born 1752)
• September 30 – George Whitefield, English-born evangelist (born 1714)
• November 1 – Alexander Cruden, Scottish compiler of Bible concordance (born 1699)
• November 24 – Charles-Jean-François Hénault, French historian (born 1685)
• Approximate date – Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, Scottish Gaelic poet (born c. 1698)

References