1806 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1806.

Events

July â Following publication of Irish-born poet Thomas Moore's Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems, Francis Jeffrey denounces it in this month's Edinburgh Review as "licentious". Moore challenges Jeffrey to a duel in London but their confrontation is interrupted by officials and they become friends.^[1]
November 23 â Sir Roger Newdigate dies, leaving a bequest that funds the foundation of the Newdigate Prize for English Poetry at the University of Oxford. The first winner is John Wilson ("Christopher North").^[2]
December 29 â Thomas Dibdin's pantomime Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg opens at the Covent Garden Theatre in London starring Joseph Grimaldi. It runs for 111 performances.
unknown dates
- Noah Webster publishes his first English dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, recording distinct American spellings.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe completes a preliminary version of his Faust.
- NÃ³lsoyar PÃ¡ll completes his anti-Danish FuglakvÃ¦Ã°i (Ballad of the Birds), one of the first significant works in the Faroese language.

J. C. Adelung â Mithridates, a History of Language and Dialects
Johann Gottlieb Fichte â Bericht Ã¼ber die Wissenschaftslehre
James Madison â An Examination of the British Doctrine which Subjects to Capture a Neutral Trade not Open in Time of Peace
Maria Rundell (as A Lady) â A New System of Domestic Cookery
Jane West â Letters to a Young Lady

January 17 â William Saunders, Welsh poet and printer (died 1851)
February 1 â Jane Williams (Ysgafell), Welsh poet, folklorist and historian (died 1885)
February 25 â Emma Catherine Embury, American author and poet (died 1863)^[4]
March 6 â Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (died 1861)^[5]
March 26 â James Hogg, Scottish editor and publisher (died 1888)
April 17 â William Gilmore Simms, American author (died 1870)
May 20 â John Stuart Mill, English political economist and philosopher (died 1873)
July 20 â John Sterling, Scottish essayist and poet (died 1844)
July 22 â Johann Kaspar Zeuss, German historian and philologist (died 1856)
August 31 â Charles Lever, Irish novelist (died 1872)
November 11 â Georgiana Chatterton, English novelist and travel writer (died 1876)
November 16 â Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, American education reformer and author (died 1887)^[6]
unknown date â Anne Clarke, Australian theatre manager

February 2 â Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, French writer (born 1734)^[7]
February 12 â Gabriel-Henri Gaillard, French historian (born 1726)
February 19 â Elizabeth Carter, English poet, writer and translator (born 1717)^[8]
February 24 â Collin d'Harleville, French dramatist (born 1755)
March 3 â Heinrich Christian Boie, German poet and editor (born 1744)
April 4 â Carlo Gozzi, Venetian dramatist (born 1720)
May 6 â Ann Yearsley, English poet, writer and library proprietor (died 1753)
October 19 â Henry Kirke White, English poet (born 1785)
October 28 â Charlotte Turner Smith, English poet and novelist (born 1749)
November 23 â Sir Roger Newdigate, English antiquary, politician and literary patron (born 1719)
December 26 â Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, French dramatist (born 1717)