1790 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1790.

Events

February â Xavier de Maistre begins writing Voyage autour de ma chambre (Voyage Around my Room, published 1794) while under arrest in Turin in the Kingdom of Sardinia, as the result of a duel.^[1]
May â Following the death of Thomas Warton, William Hayley refuses an offer to succeed him as Poet Laureate of Great Britain. Retired MP Henry James Pye is appointed in his place.^[2]
May 31 â United States President George Washington approves the Copyright Act of 1790.^[3]
June 1 â The Royal Literary Fund is founded in Britain by David Williams.^[4]
June 9 â John Barrie's Philadelphia Spelling Book Arranged Upon a Plan Entirely New becomes the first American book copyrighted.^[5]
unknown date â William Lane establishes the Minerva Press in London, specializing in Gothic fiction.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe â Torquato Tasso (completed)^[7]
William Hayley â Eudora
Thomas Holcroft â The German Hotel
Edmond Malone (editor) â The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare
Leandro FernÃ¡ndez de MoratÃn â El viejo y la niÃ±a (The Old Man and the Young Girl, published)
Mariana Starke â The Widow of Malabar^[8]
August von Kotzebue
- Die Indianer in England (The Indians in England)
- Menschenhass und Reue (Misanthropy and Repentance)
- (as Knigge) â Doktor Bahrdt mit der eisernen Stirn (Doctor Bahrdt with the Iron Brow)

Samuel Ayscough â An Index to the Remarkable Passages and Words Made Use of by Shakespeare, first Shakespeare concordance published
James Bruce â Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile
Edmund Burke â Reflections on the Revolution in France
Hannah More â An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World
Jean Paul â Leben des vergnÃ¼gten Schulmeisterlein Maria Wutz (Life of the Devoted School Mistress MW)
Alexander Radishchev â Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow
Mary Wollstonecraft â A Vindication of the Rights of Men

January 1 â James Wills, Irish poet (died 1868)
January 10 â Anders Abraham GrafstrÃ¶m, Swedish historian, priest and poet (died 1870)^[9]
March 3 â John Austin, English legal philosopher (died 1859)
March 10 â Jacques Arago, French traveller and writer (died 1855)^[10]
March 18 â Marquis de Custine, French aristocrat and travel writer (died 1857)^[11]
June 9 â Abel-FranÃ§ois Villemain, French politician and writer (died 1870)^[12]
June 24 â Helena Ekblom, Swedish writer and preacher (died 1859)
July 8 â Fitz-Greene Halleck, American poet (died 1867)^[13]
August 8 â Ferenc KÃ¶lcsey, Hungarian poet and critic (died 1838)^[14]
October 1 â Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, English novelist (died 1846)
October 21 â Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet (died 1869)^[15]
December 8 â Richard Carlile, English advocate of suffrage and press freedom (died 1843)
December 25 â Anna Eliza Bray, English novelist and travel writer (died 1883)
Unknown date â Mary Diana Dods (also as David Lyndsay and Walter Sholto Douglas), Scottish writer (died 1830 in literature)

February 19 â Thomas de Mahy, marquis de Favras, man of letters (born 1744; executed)
March 20 â Thomas Richards of Coychurch, cleric and lexicographer (born c.1710)^[16]
April 3 â Ephraim Kuh, German poet, 58/9^[17]
April 29 â Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French art critic (born 1715)^[18]
May 2 â Martin Madan, English writer and cleric (born 1726)
May 6 â Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, French military writer (born 1743)
May 21 â Thomas Warton, English poet and literary historian (born 1798)^[19]
July 7 â FranÃ§ois Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher (born 1721)^[20]
July 17 â Adam Smith, Scottish philosopher and political economist (born 1723)^[21]
July 25 â William Livingston, American political writer and politician (born 1723)^[22]
unknown date â Maria Vittoria Ottoboni, Italian stage actress, writer and salonist (b. 1721)^[23]
probable â Marc-Antoine Eidous, French encyclopedist (born c. 1724)^[24]