1783 in literature
Encyclopedia
Events
- Friedrich SchillerFriedrich SchillerJohann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
leaves Stuttgart for Weimar to avoid persecution. - William CobbettWilliam CobbettWilliam Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
arrives in London. - August von KotzebueAugust von KotzebueAugust Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue was a German dramatist.One of Kotzebue's books was burned during the Wartburg festival in 1817. He was murdered in 1819 by Karl Ludwig Sand, a militant member of the Burschenschaften...
is appointed to the high court of appeal in Reval.
New books
- Thomas DayThomas DayThomas Day was a British author and abolitionist. He was well-known for the children's book The History of Sandford and Merton which emphasized Rousseauvian educational ideals.-Life and works:...
- The History of Standford and Merton - Ellenor FennEllenor FennEllenor Fenn was a prolific 18th-century writer of children's books.-Early life:Fenn was born on 12 March 1743/44 in Westhorpe, Suffolk to Sheppard and Susanna Frere. John Frere was her elder brother and John Hookham Frere her nephew. In 1766 she married the antiquarian John Fenn and moved with...
(as "Mrs. Teachwell") - Cobwebs to Catch FliesCobwebs to Catch FliesCobwebs to Catch Flies is a children's book by Ellenor Fenn, originally anonymous, but later editions were advertised as being by Mrs Teachwell or "Mrs Lovechild"... - Thomas HolcroftThomas HolcroftThomas Holcroft was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer.-Early life:He was born in Orange Court, Leicester Fields, London. His father had a shoemaker's shop, and kept riding horses for hire; but having fallen into difficulties was reduced to the status of hawking peddler...
- The Family Picture - Sophia LeeSophia LeeSophia Lee was an English novelist and dramatist.She was the daughter of John Lee , actor and theatrical manager, and was born in London...
- The Recess - Anna Maria Mackenzie - Burton-Wood
- Clara ReeveClara ReeveClara Reeve was an English novelist, best known for her Gothic fiction work The Old English Baron .Reeve was born in Ipswich, England, one of the eight children of Reverend Willian Reeve, M.A., Rector of Freston and of Kreson in Suffolk, and perpetual curate of St Nicholas...
- The Two Mentors
New drama
- Frances BrookeFrances BrookeFrances Moore Brooke was an English novelist, essayist, playwright and translator.-Biography:Brooke was born in, Claypole, Lincolnshire, the daughter of a clergyman. By the late 1740s, she had moved to London, where she embarked on her career as a poet and playwright...
- Roxina - Hannah CowleyHannah CowleyHannah Cowley was an English dramatist and poet. Although Cowley’s plays and poetry did not enjoy wide popularity after the nineteenth century, critic Melinda Finberg rates Cowley as “one of the foremost playwrights of the late eighteenth century” whose “skill in writing fluid, sparkling dialogue...
- Which is the Man? - Richard CumberlandRichard Cumberland (dramatist)Richard Cumberland was a British dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived...
- The Mysterious HusbandThe Mysterious HusbandThe Mysterious Husband is a play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It is a Domestic drama with a tragic ending, first performed in 1783. Along with several other Cumberland plays it was influenced by the 1768 gothic novel The Mysterious Mother by Horace Walpole.-Bibliography:* Frank,...
Poetry
- Lady Anne BarnardLady Anne BarnardLady Anne Barnard , née Anne Lindsay, eldest daughter of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres was born at Balcarres House, Fife, Scotland. She was author of the ballad Auld Robin Gray and an accomplished travel writer, artist and socialite of the period...
- Auld Robin GrayAuld Robin GrayAuld Robin Gray is the title of a Scots ballad written by the Scottish poet Lady Anne Lindsay in 1772.The title comes from the name of its hero, a good old man who marries a young woman whose is in love with a man called Jamie who goes away to sea in order to earn money so that the couple can marry...
(ballad) (published anonymously) - William BlakeWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
- Poetical SketchesPoetical SketchesPoetical Sketches is the first collection of poetry and prose by William Blake, written between 1769 and 1777. Forty copies were printed in 1783 with the help of Blake's friends, the artist John Flaxman and the Reverend Anthony Stephen Mathew, at the request of his wife Harriet Mathew... - Jane Cave - Poems
- Judith Cowper - The Progress of Poetry
- George CrabbeGeorge CrabbeGeorge Crabbe was an English poet and naturalist.-Biography:He was born in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, the son of a tax collector, and developed his love of poetry as a child. In 1768, he was apprenticed to a local doctor, who taught him little, and in 1771 he changed masters and moved to Woodbridge...
- The VillageThe Village (poem)The Village is one of the best known poems by the Englishman, George Crabbe, published in 1783. The poem contrasts the traditional representation of the rural idyll in Augustan poetry with the realities of village life.... - Joseph RitsonJoseph RitsonJoseph Ritson was an English antiquary.He was born at Stockton-on-Tees, of a Westmorland yeoman family. He was educated for the law, and settled in London as a conveyancer at the age of twenty-two. He devoted his spare time to literature, and in 1782 published an attack on Thomas Warton's History...
- A Select Collection of English Songs - John WolcotJohn WolcotJohn Wolcot , satirist, born in Dodbrooke, near Kingsbridge in Devon, was educated by an uncle, and studied medicine. In 1767 he went as physician to Sir William Trelawny, Governor of Jamaica, and whom he induced to present him to a Church in the island then vacant, and was ordained in 1769...
as "Peter Pindar" - More Lyric Odes, to the Royal Academicians
- See also 1783 in poetry1783 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* Lady Anne Barnard, Auld Robin Gray * William Blake, Poetical Sketches...
Non-fiction
- James BeattieJames Beattie (writer)Professor James Beattie FRSE was a Scottish poet, moralist and philosopher.He was born the son of a shopkeeper and small farmer at Laurencekirk in the Mearns, and educated at Aberdeen University. In 1760, he was appointed Professor of moral philosophy there as a result of the interest of his...
- Dissertations Moral and Critical - William BeckfordWilliam BeckfordWilliam Beckford may refer to:* William Beckford , English businessman, often called "Alderman Beckford", father of William Thomas* William Beckford of Somerley , Jamaican slave-owner and writer...
- Dreams, Waking Thughts and Incidents - Hugh BlairHugh BlairHugh Blair FRSE was a Scottish minister of religion, author and rhetorician, considered one of the first great theorists of written discourse....
- Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres - Edmund BurkeEdmund BurkeEdmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
- Letter on the Penal Laws Against Irish Catholics - Adam FergusonAdam FergusonAdam Ferguson FRSE, also known as Ferguson of Raith was a Scottish philosopher, social scientist and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment...
- History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic - William GodwinWilliam GodwinWilliam Godwin was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and the first modern proponent of anarchism...
- Life of Lord Chatham - Immanuel KantImmanuel KantImmanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
- Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science - Vicesimus KnoxVicesimus KnoxVicesimus Knox was an English essayist and minister. He was born December 8, 1752, at Newington Green, Middlesex. Knox was educated at St John's College, Oxford, took orders, and became Head Master of Tonbridge School. He published Essays Moral and Literary , and compiled the formerly well-known...
- Elegant Extracts - Mémoires secretsMémoires secretsThe Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la République des Lettres en France depuis 1762 jusqu'à nos jours is an anonymous chronicle of events that occurred between 1762 and 1787. Goodman thinks it started as a manuscript newsletter emanating from Paris...
(anonymous) - Ezra StilesEzra StilesEzra Stiles was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian and author. He was president of Yale College .-Early life:...
- The United States elevated to Glory and HonorThe United States elevated to Glory and HonorThe United States elevated to Glory and Honor is a book by Ezra Stiles, published in 1783.- Transcript of title page :"The United States elevated to Glory and Honor" A SERMON Preached before His Excellency JONATHAN TRUMBEULL, Esq., L.L.D... - Horace-Bénédict de SaussureHorace-Bénédict de Saussure200px|thumb|Portrait of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure Horace-Bénédict de Saussure was a Genevan aristocrat, physicist and Alpine traveller, often considered the founder of alpinism, and considered to be the first person to build a successful solar oven.-Life and work:Saussure was born in Conches,...
- Essai sur l'hygrométrie
Births
- January 23 - StendhalStendhalMarie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
, novelist (d. 1842) - April 3 - Washington IrvingWashington IrvingWashington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
, short story writer (d. 1859)
Deaths
- January 2 - Johann Jakob BodmerJohann Jakob BodmerJohann Jakob Bodmer was a Swiss-German author, academic, critic and poet.-Life:Born at Greifensee, near Zürich, and first studying theology and then trying a commercial career, he finally found his vocation in letters...
, journalist and critic (b. 1698) - April 17 - Louise d'EpinayLouise d'EpinayLouise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Esclavelles d'Épinay was a French writer, a saloniste and woman of fashion, known on account of her liaisons with Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who gives malicious reports of her in his Confessions...
(b. 1726) - September 6 - Anna WilliamsAnna Williams (poet)Anna Williams was a poet and companion of Samuel Johnson.-Early life:She was born at Rosemarket, Pembrokeshire to Zachariah Williams and his wife, Martha. Her father provided her with a wide artistic and scientific education, including Italian and French...
, poet and friend of Dr Johnson (b. 1706) - October 10 - Henry Brooke, novelist, playwright, and poet (b. 1703)
- October 29 - Jean le Rond d'AlembertJean le Rond d'AlembertJean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie...
, mathematician - November 3 - Charles ColléCharles ColléCharles Collé was a French dramatist and songwriter.The son of a notary, he was born in Paris. He became interested in the rhymes of Jean Heguanier, the most famous writer of couplets in Paris. From a notary's office, Collé was transferred to that of the receiver-general of finance, where he...
, dramatist (b. 1709) - November 23 - Ann Eliza BleeckerAnn Eliza BleeckerAnn Eliza Bleecker was an American poet and correspondent. Following a New York upbringing, Bleecker married John James Bleecker, a New Rochelle lawyer, in 1769. He encouraged her writings, and helped her publish a periodical containing her works.The American Revolution saw John join the New York...
, poet and novelist (b. 1752)