1774 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1774.

Events

February 22 â 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 does permit authors to claim copyright on their own works.
September 14 â A new Stadsschouwburg (municipal theatre) in Amsterdam opens with the premiÃ¨re of Lucretia Wilhelmina van Merken's tragedy Jacob Simonszoon de Ryk.^[2]
September 29 â Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's semi-autobiographical epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) (written January â March) is published anonymously in Leipzig, Germany; it is influential in the Sturm und Drang movement and Romanticism.
unknown dates
- After the 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.^[3]^[4]
- James Lackington begins in the London bookselling business.
- Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider becomes secretary to Richard FranÃ§ois Philippe Brunck.
- The National and University Library of Slovenia in Ljubljana is established as the Lyceum Library, from the remains of the dissolved Jesuit library and several monastery libraries.^[5]
- Alberto Fortis publishes Viaggio in Dalmazia ("Journey to Dalmatia") and starts Morlachism.^[6]

Jeremy Bentham â The White Bull
Henry Brooke â Juliet Grenville
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe â The Sorrows of Young Werther
Charles Johnstone â The History of Arsaces
The Newgate Calendar
Christoph Martin Wieland â Die Abderiten, eine sehr wahrscheinliche Geschichte (The Abderites: A Very Probable Story)

James Beattie â The Minstrel, volume 2
William Dunkin â Poetical Works
Oliver Goldsmith â Retaliation
Richard Graves â The Progress of Gallantry
William Mason â An Heroic Postscript to the Public
Hannah More â The Inflexible Captive
Samuel Jackson Pratt (as Courtney Melmoth) â The Tears of A Genius, occasioned by the Death of Dr. Goldsmith
Henry James Pye â Farringdon Hill
Mary Scott â The Female Advocate
Candido Maria Trigueros â El poeta filÃ³sofo o PoesÃas filosÃ³ficas en verso pentÃ¡metro^[7]
William Whitehead â Plays and Poems, by William Whitehead, Esq. Poet Laureat

Giacomo Casanova â Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia
Mary Deverell â Sermons
Alberto Fortis â Viaggio in Dalmazia
Martin Gerbert â De cantu et musica sacra
Oliver Goldsmith
- The Grecian History
- An History of the Earth and Animated Nature
Henry Home â Sketches of the History of Man
John Hutchins (died 1773) â The History and Antiquities of Dorset
Thomas Jefferson â A Summary View of the Rights of British America
Samuel Johnson â The Patriot
Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz â The History of Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina (English translation of Histoire de la Louisiane (1758) in 1 vol.)
Joseph Priestley â Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
William Richardson â A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters
Pedro RodrÃguez, Count of Campomanes â Discurso sobre el fomento de la industria popular
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield â Letters to his Son
Sugita Genpaku â Kaitai Shinsho (è§£ä½æ°æ¸, "New Text on Anatomy", Japanese translation of Ontleedkundige Tafelen)
Horace Walpole â A Description of Strawberry-Hill
Thomas Warton â The History of English Poetry, volume 1
John Wesley â Thoughts upon Slavery

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