1744 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1744.

Events

• February 6 – Samuel Foote makes his debut as an actor as Othello at the Haymarket Theatre, London, England.
• February 15 – Spranger Barry makes his debut as an actor at the Theatre Royal, Dublin.
• April – The Female Spectator (a monthly) is founded by Eliza Haywood in England, the first periodical written for women by a woman.
• April 14 – The Physico-Historical Society is formed in Dublin for the preservation of 'manuscripts, rare printed books, and natural curiosities relating to Ireland'.
• May 29 – Alexander Pope is received into the Catholic Church, a day before his death.

New books

Fiction

• Mary Collyer – Felicia to Charlotte
• Sarah Fielding – The Adventures of David Simple
• Eliza Haywood – The Fortunate Foundlings
• Edward Moore – Fables for the Female Sex
• William Oldys – The Harleian Miscellany (introduction by Samuel Johnson)
• Joseph Warton – The Enthusiast

Children

• John Newbery – A Little Pretty Pocket-Book
• Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (earliest extant English nursery-rhyme collection)

Drama

• Robert Dodsley – A Select Collection of Old Plays
• William Havard – Regulus
• James Miller
  • Joseph and his Brethren (music by Handel)
  • Mahomet the Imposter (adapted from Voltaire's Mahomet; completed by John Hoadly)
• James Ralph – The Astrologer (adapted from Thomas Tomkis's Albumazar, itself adapted from Giambattista della Porta's L'astrologo)
• Antonio de Zamora – No hay deuda que no se pague y convidado de piedra

Poetry

• Mark Akenside
  • The Pleasures of the Imagination
  • An Epistle to Curio
• Jane Brereton – Poems
• Gabriel Álvarez de Toledo (ed. Diego de Torres Villarroel) – Obras póstumas poéticas, con la Burromaquia

Non-fiction

• John Armstrong – The Art of Preserving Health
• George Berkeley – Siris
• Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix – Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France (History and General Description of New France)
• Émilie de Breteuil, marquise du Chatelet -Dissertation sur la nature et la propagation du feu
• Colley Cibber – Another Occasional Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope
• David Garrick – An Essay on Acting (attrib.)
• Samuel Johnson
  • Life of Mr Richard Savage
  • An Account of the Life of John Philip Barretier
• Francis Moore – A Voyage to Georgia
• Alexander Pope – Essay on Man, volume 4: "Epistle: Of the Nature and State of Man, with Respect to" (4) "Happiness" (the first 2 epistles were written in 1732 and the third in 1733).
• John Ranby – The Method of Treating Gunshot Wounds
• Emanuel Swedenborg – The Animal Kingdom (Soul's Domain) (1744–45)
• Jonathan Swift – Three Sermons

Births

• January 29 – Catharina Charlotta Swedenmarck, Swedish writer (died 1813)
• February 10 – William Mitford, English historian (died 1827)
• April 11 (baptised) – Elizabeth Bonhôte, English novelist, essayist and poet (died 1818)
• August 25 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German poet (died 1803)
• December – Elsa Fougt, Swedish editor and publisher (died 1826)

Deaths

• January 28 – Thomas Innes, Scottish historian (born 1662)
• January 23 – Thomas Griffith, Irish actor and theatre manager (born 1680)
• March 31 – Antiochus Kantemir, Russian diplomat and writer (born 1708)
• April 27 – James Miller, English playwright, poet and satirist (born 1704)
• May 30 – Alexander Pope, English poet and satirist (born 1688)
• September 18 – Lewis Theobald, English literary historian (born 1688)

References

1. 1744
2. List of years in literature
3. 1744 in poetry
4. Alexander Pope
5. English literature
6. Table of years in literature
7. Russian literature
8. 1744 in music
9. Children's literature
10. List of nursery rhymes
11. 1734 in poetry
12. 1741 in literature
13. 1746 in literature
14. 1747 in literature
15. 1742 in literature
16. 1739 in literature
17. 1734 in literature
18. 1743 in literature
19. 1753 in literature
20. African-American literature