1781 in literature
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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1781.
Events
- March 27 â George Crabbe writes to Edmund Burke, enclosing examples of his work.[1] The outcome is the publication of Crabbe's poem The Library.[2]
- August 5 â AntonÃn Strnad completes an inventory of the contents of the Clementinum in Prague, which becomes a national library.[3]
- unknown date â Rudolf Erich Raspe (anonymously) publishes "M-h-s-nsche Geschichten" ("M-h-s-n Stories") in the Berlin humor magazine Vade mecum für lustige Leute ("Handbook for Fun-loving People"), the first appearance of Baron Munchausen in fiction.[4]
New books
Fiction
- Robert Bage â Mount Henneth
- Christoph Friedrich Bretzner â Belmont und Constanze[5]
- William Combe â Letters of an Italian Nun and an English Gentleman
- Eugenio Espejo â La ciencia blancardina[6]
- Benjamin Franklin â A Letter To A Royal Academy[7]
- Charles Johnstone â The History of John Juniper
- Henry Mackenzie â Julia de Roubignei
- Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne â La Découverte Australe par un Homme-Volant
- Glocester Ridley â Melanpus
- Anna Seward â Monody on Major André
Children
- Mrs. Barbauld â Hymns in Prose for Children
- Joachim Heinrich Campe â Die Entdeckung von Amerika (Discovery of America)
Drama
- Miles Peter Andrews â Dissipation
- Frances Brooke â The Siege of Sinope
- Hannah Cowley â The World as it Goes
- Elizabeth Craven â The Miniature Picture
- John Delap â The Royal Suppliants[8]
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe â Iphigenia in Tauris (revised version)
- Thomas Holcroft â Duplicity
- Elizabeth Inchbald â Polygamy
- Robert Jephson â The Count of Narbonne[9]
- John O'Keeffe â The Agreeable Surprise
- Samuel Jackson Pratt â The Fair Circassian
- Friedrich Schiller â The Robbers (Die Räuber, published)
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan
- The Critic (published)
- A Trip to Scarborough
Poetry
- William Cowper â Anti-Thelyphthora
- George Crabbe â The Library
- Maria De Fleury â Poems, Occasioned by the Confinement and Acquittal of the Right Honourable Lord George Gordon, President of the Protestant Association
- Santa Rita Durão â Caramuru
- Anne Francis â A Poetical Translation of the Song of Solomon
- Philip Freneau â The British Prison-Ship
- William Hayley â The Triumphs of Temper
- George Keate â Works
- Samuel Jackson Pratt â Sympathy
Non-fiction
- Maria De Fleury â Unrighteous Abuse Detected and Chastised
- Mary Deverell â Sermons on the Following Subjects...
- Edward Gibbon â Volumes II and III of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- Henry Home â Loose Hints Upon Education
- Samuel Johnson
- The Beauties of Johnson
- Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
- Immanuel Kant â Critique of Pure Reason
- John Moore â A View of Society and Manners in Italy
- John Newton â Cardiphonia
- John Nichols â Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth
- Magister Pianco (Hans Heinrich von Ecker und Eckhoffen) â Der Rosenkreutzer in seiner Blösse
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau â Essai sur l'origine des langues
Births
- January 26 â Ludwig Achim von Arnim, German poet and novelist (died 1831)[10]
- January 30 â Adelbert von Chamisso, German poet and botanist (died 1838)[11]
- February 26 â Peter Andresen Oelrichs, Heligoland-born lexicographer (died 1869)
- March 17 â Ebenezer Elliott, English poet (died 1849)
- May 14 â Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, German historian (died 1873)
- June 12 (probable) â Christian Isobel Johnstone, Scottish journalist and novelist (died 1857)
- November 3 â Sarah Elizabeth Utterson, English translator and short story writer (died 1851)[12]
- November 6 â Lucy Aikin (Mary Godolphin), English historical writer (died 1864)[13]
- November 29 â Andrés Bello, Venezuelan polymath (died 1865)[14]
- December 6 â Charlotte von Ahlefeld, German novelist (died 1849)[15]
- December 11 â David Brewster, Scottish scientist and writer (died 1868)
Deaths
- February 15 â Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German philosopher and dramatist (born 1729)[16]
- February 22 â Anna Magdalena Godiche, Danish book printer and publisher (born 1721)[17]
- February 24 â Edward Capell, English Shakespeare scholar (born 1713)[18]
- March 1 â Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, French historian, classicist and lexicographer (born 1697)
- March 17 â Johannes Ewald, Danish dramatist and poet (born 1743)[19]
- May 8 â Richard Jago, English poet and cleric (born 1715)[20]
- June 24 â Anna Miller, English poet and salon hostess (born 1741)
- September 11 â Johann August Ernesti, German theologian and philologist (born 1707)[21]
- November 2 â José Francisco de Isla, Spanish satirist (born 1703)
- November 4 â Johann Nikolaus Götz, German poet (born 1721)[22]
- December 7 â Judith Madan, English poet (born 1702)
