1787 in literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1787.
Events
- January 15 â Ann Ward marries William Radcliffe, gaining the surname by which she will be known as a writer of Gothic novels.[1]
- April 16 â Royall Tyler's The Contrast becomes the first comedy written by an American citizen to be professionally produced, at the John Street Theatre (Manhattan).
- April 17 â The Edinburgh edition of Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published by William Creech. It includes a Burns portrait by Alexander Nasmyth. The poet has great social success in the city's literary circles; 16-year-old Walter Scott meets him at the house of Adam Ferguson.
- June 1 â King George III of Great Britain issues a Proclamation for the Discouragement of Vice, which can be used to prosecute obscene publications.[2]
- June 27 â Just before midnight, Edward Gibbon completes The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the small summerhouse in his garden in Lausanne, Switzerland.
- July â Friedrich Schiller arrives in Weimar.[3]
- November 21 â François-Joseph Talma makes his professional stage debut at the Comédie-Française as Seide, in Voltaire's Mahomet.
- December 4 â Robert Burns meets Agnes Maclehose at a party given by Miss Erskine Nimmo.[4]
New books
Fiction
- Elizabeth Bonhôte â Olivia, or, The Deserted Bride
- Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai â Les Amours du chevalier de Faublas
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe â The Sorrows of Young Werther (revised edition)[5]
- Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse â Ardinghello and die glückseligen Inseln
- Elizabeth Helme â Louisa; or the Cottage on the Moor
- Johann Karl August Musäus â Volksmärchen der Deutschen (fifth volume)[6]
- Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins â The Victim of Fancy
- Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken â Abraham Blankaart
Children
- François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil â Fanfan et Lolotte, ou Histoire de deux enfants abandonnés dans une île déserte (Fanfan and Lolotte, Story of Two Children Abandoned on a Desert Island)
Drama
- Pierre Beaumarchais â Tarare (opera)
- George Colman the Elder âThe Village Lawyer
- George Colman the Younger â Inkle and Yarico (comic opera)
- Richard Cumberland â The Country Attorney[7]
- Germaine de Staël â Jeanne Grey
- Thomas Holcroft â Seduction[8]
- Elizabeth Inchbald
- Harriet Lee â The New Peerage
- Andrew Macdonald âVimonda
- Friedrich Schiller â Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien
- Royall Tyler â The Contrast
Poetry
Non-fiction
- Thomas Best â A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling
- Mathurin Jacques Brisson â Pesanteur Spécifique des Corps
- Ottobah Cugoano â Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species[10]
- (Sir) John Fenn (ed.) â The Paston Letters (Original letters, written during the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III)
- John Hawkins â Life of Samuel Johnson
- 'Publius' (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay) â The Federalist papers (serial publication begins with Hamilton's "Federalist No. 1 â General Introduction" in The Independent Journal (New York City), October 27)[11]
- Scots Musical Museum, vol. 1
- Mary Wollstonecraft â Thoughts on the Education of Daughters[12]
Births
- February 2 â Charles Etienne Boniface, French music teacher, playwright and journalist (died 1853)
- February 17 â George Mogridge ("Old Humphrey"), English children's writer and poet (died 1854)
- February 23 â Emma Willard, American teacher and writer (died 1870)
- March 7 â George Bethune English, American explorer and writer (died 1828)
- April 26 â Ludwig Uhland, German poet (died 1862)[13]
- May 29 â Konstantin Batyushkov, Russian poet, essayist and translator (died 1855)
- July 9 â Taliesin Williams, Welsh poet and author (died 1847)[14]
- September 13 â John Adamson, English antiquary and expert on Portuguese (died 1855)
- November 4 â Edmund Kean, English actor (died 1833)
- November 15 â Richard Henry Dana Sr., American poet, critic and lawyer (died 1879)
- November 21 â Bryan Procter, English poet who wrote under the pseudonym Barry Cornwall (died 1874)[15]
- December 16 â Mary Russell Mitford, English novelist (died 1855)[16]
Deaths
- April 1 â Floyer Sydenham, English classical scholar and translator (born 1710)
- April 2 â Francisco Javier Clavijero, Mexican-born historian (born 1731)
- May 4 â Philip Skelton, Irish clergyman and writer (born 1707)[17]
- June 19 â John Brown, Scottish theologian (born 1722)
- October 28 â Johann Karl August Musäus, German satirist and children's writer (born 1735)[18]
- October 30 â Ferdinando Galiani, Italian economist (born 1728)
- November 3 â Robert Lowth, English poet, grammarian and bishop (born 1710)[19]
- December 18 â Soame Jenyns, English poet and essayist (born 1704)
