1774 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1774.

Events

• February 22 - The English legal case of Donaldson v Beckett is decided in the House of Lords, denying the continued existence of a perpetual common law copyright and holding that copyright is a creation of statute and can be limited in its duration.^[1] This permits authors to claim copyright in their own works.
• September 29 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's semi-autobiographical epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) (written January–March) is published anonymously in Leipzig, Germany; it is influential in the Sturm und Drang movement and Romanticism.
• Following destruction of the Schloss Weimar by fire, Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, forms a commission for its reconstruction directed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.^[2]
• James Lackington begins in the London bookselling business.
• Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider becomes secretary to Richard François Philippe Brunck.

New books

• Jeremy Bentham - The White Bull
• Henry Brooke - Juliet Grenville
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - The Sorrows of Young Werther
• Charles Johnstone - The History of Arsaces
• The Newgate Calendar
• Christoph Martin Wieland - Die Abderiten, eine sehr wahrscheinliche Geschichte ("The Abderites: A very probable history")

New drama

• Miles Peter Andrews - The Election
• John Burgoyne - The Maid of the Oaks
• George Colman the Elder - The Man of Business
• Charles Dibdin - The Waterman
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Clavigo
• Thomas Hull - Henry the Second
• Hugh Kelly - The Romance of an Hour
• Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos - El delincuente honrado

Poetry

• James Beattie - The Minstrel, volume 2
• William Dunkin - Poetical Works
• Oliver Goldsmith - Retaliation
• Richard Graves - The Progress of Gallantry
• William Mason - An Heroic Postscript to the Public
• Hannah More - The Inflexible Captive
• Samuel Jackson Pratt (as "Courtney Melmoth") - The Tears of A Genius, occasioned by the Death of Dr Goldsmith
• Henry James Pye - Farringdon Hill
• Mary Scott - The Female Advocate
• William Whitehead - Plays and Poems, by William Whitehead, Esq. Poet Laureat
• Cándido María Trigueros - El poeta filósofo o Poesías filosóficas en verso pentámetro

Non-fiction

• Giacomo Casanova – Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia
• Joseph Cradock - Village Memoirs
• Martin Gerbert – De cantu et musica sacra
• Oliver Goldsmith
  • The Grecian History
  • An History of the Earth and Animated Nature
• Henry Home - Sketches of the History of Man
• Thomas Jefferson - A Summary View of the Rights of British America
• Samuel Johnson - The Patriot
• Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz - The History of Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina; an English translation, in one volume, of Histoire de la Louisiane, published in 1758
• Joseph Priestley - Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
• William Richardson - A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters
• Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield - Letters to his Son
• Sugita Genpaku - Kaitai Shinsho ("New Text on Anatomy")
• Horace Walpole - A Description of Strawberry-Hill
• Thomas Warton - The History of English Poetry
• John Wesley - Thoughts upon Slavery
• Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes - Discurso sobre el fomento de la industria popular

Births

• January 1 – Pietro Giordani, Italian translator, scholar and writer (died 1848)
• February 24 – Archibald Constable, Scottish publisher (died 1827)
• July 14 – Francis Lathom, Dutch-born English Gothic novelist and dramatist (died 1832)
• August 12 – Robert Southey, English poet and Poet Laureate (died 1843)

Deaths

• April 4 – Oliver Goldsmith, Irish dramatist (born 1728/1730)
• April 28 – Gottfried Lengnich, German/Polish historian (born 1689)
• September 17 – Abraham Langford, English auctioneer and playwright (born 1711)
• October 16 – Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet (head injury, born 1750)^[3]

References