1783 in literature
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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1783.
Events
- April 14 â Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's drama Nathan der Weise receives its first professional performance, in Berlin.
- May 6 â William Cobbett arrives in London to work, and later in the year joins the 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot.
- September â Friedrich Schiller, having left Stuttgart for Weimar to avoid persecution, becomes resident dramatist at Mannheim.[1]
- November 18 â August von Kotzebue leaves St Petersburg to take up a position with the high court of appeal in Reval, then subject to the Russian Empire.[2]
New books
Fiction
- Jozef Ignác Bajza â René
- Rhijnvis Feith â Julia
- Thomas Holcroft â The Family Picture
- Sophia Lee â The Recess
- Johann Karl August Musäus â Volksmärchen der Deutschen (second volume)
- Clara Reeve â The Two Mentors
Children
- Thomas Day (anonymously) â The History of Sandford and Merton (first of three story books)[3]
- Ellenor Fenn (as Mrs. Teachwell) â Cobwebs to Catch Flies
- Dorothy Kilner (as M. P.) â The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse
- Mary Ann Kilner
- A Course of Lectures for Sunday Evenings. Containing religious advice to young persons
- (as S. S.) The Adventures of a Pincushion
Drama
- Vittorio Alfieri â Agamennone
- Frances Brooke â Roxina
- Hannah Cowley â Which is the Man?
- Richard Cumberland â The Mysterious Husband
- John O'Keeffe â The Poor Soldier
- William Jackson â The Metamorphosis
- Samuel Jackson Pratt â The School for Vanity
Poetry
- Lady Anne Barnard â Auld Robin Gray (ballad) (published anonymously)
- William Blake â Poetical Sketches
- Judith Cowper â The Progress of Poetry
- George Crabbe â The Village
- Joseph Ritson â A Select Collection of English Songs
- John Wolcot (as Peter Pindar) â More Lyric Odes, to the Royal Academicians
- See also 1783 in poetry
Non-fiction
- James Beattie â Dissertations Moral and Critical
- William Beckford â Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents
- Hugh Blair â Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
- Edmund Burke â Letter on the Penal Laws Against Irish Catholics
- Adam Ferguson â History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic
- William Godwin â Life of Lord Chatham
- Immanuel Kant â Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science
- Vicesimus Knox â Elegant Extracts
- Mémoires secrets (anonymous)
- Moses Mendelssohn â Jerusalem
- Ezra Stiles â The United States elevated to Glory and Honor
- Horace-Bénédict de Saussure â Essai sur l'hygrométrie
Births
- January 23 â Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), French novelist (died 1842)[4][5]
- April 3 â Washington Irving, American short story writer, essayist and politician (died 1859)[6]
- May 14 â Samuel Lee, English orientalist and linguist (died 1852)[7]
- September 23 â Jane Taylor, English poet and novelist (died 1824)
- December 10 â MarÃa Bibiana BenÃtez, Puerto Rican poet and playwright (died c. 1873)[8]
Deaths
- January 2 â Johann Jakob Bodmer, Swiss journalist and critic writing in German (born 1698)[9]
- April 17 â Louise d'Epinay French writer and salon hostess (born 1726)
- September 6 â Anna Williams, Welsh-born poet (born 1706)
- October 10 â Henry Brooke, Irish novelist, playwright, and poet (born 1703)
- October 29 â Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician and philosopher (born 1717)
- November 3 â Charles Collé, French dramatist and songwriter (born 1709)
- November 23 â Ann Eliza Bleecker, American poet, novelist and letter writer (born 1752)[10]