istoryworld
Events relating to literature
Laurence Sterne publishes the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy, beginning with the scene at the hero's conception
Two books in this year, Émile and Du Contrat Social, prompt orders for the arrest of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Fingal, supposedly by the medieval Celtic poet Ossian, has a huge and fashionable success but is revealed to be a forgery by James Macpherson
James Boswell meets Samuel Johnson for the first time, in the London bookshop of Thomas Davies
English historian Edward Gibbon, sitting among ruins in Rome, conceives the idea of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
English author Horace Walpole provides an early taste of Gothic thrills in his novel Castle of Otranto
Irish novelist Oliver Goldsmith publishes The Vicar of Wakefield, with a hero who has much to complain about but keeps calm
A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland begins publication of the immensely successful Encyclopaedia Britannica
17-year-old Thomas Chatterton, later hailed as a significant poet, commits suicide in a London garret
Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer is produced in London's Covent Garden theatre
Samuel Johnson and James Boswell undertake a journey together to the western islands of Scotland
Goethe's romantic novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, brings him an immediate European reputation
Goethe's play Götz von Berlichingen, a definitive work of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), has its premiere in Berlin
Encouraged by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine emigrates to America and settles in Philadelphia
Figaro makes his first appearance on stage in Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville
In Common Sense, an anonymous pamphlet, English immigrant Thomas Paine is the first to argue that the American colonies should be independent
English historian Edward Gibbon publishes the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Scottish economist Adam Smith analyzes the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's second play, The School for Scandal, is an immediate success in London's Drury Lane theatre
Francis Hopkinson's popular ballad The Battle of the Kegs describes an ingenious American threat to the British navy
US poet Philip Freneau describes in The British Prison Ship the horrors of his experiences as a prisoner
German philosopher Immanuel Kant publishes the first of his three 'critiques', The Critique of Pure Reason
Friedrich von Schiller's youthful and anarchic play The Robbers causes a sensation when performed in Mannheim
US lexicographer Noah Webster publishes a Spelling Book for American children that eventually will sell more than 60 million copies
US author Philip Freneau publishes his first collection of poems, dating back to 1771
