1724 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1724.

Events

*January – Andrew Michael Ramsay goes to Rome to tutor the two sons of James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite pretender to the British throne.
*August – Thomas Longman establishes the Longman publishing house in London.
*November 16 – An "autobiographical" ''Narrative'' of the life of notorious criminal Jack Sheppard, said to be by Daniel Defoe, goes on sale at Sheppard's execution at Tyburn.

New books

Prose

*Anonymous (attributed to Daniel Defoe) – ''A Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes, &c. of John Sheppard''
*Gilbert Burnet (died 1715) – ''Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time'', Vol. I
*Samuel Clarke – ''Sermons of Samuel Clarke''
* Anthony Collins – ''Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion'' with ''An Apology for Free Debate and Liberty of Writing''
* Mary Davys – '' The Reform'd Coquet'' (novella)
*Daniel Defoe
**'' Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress''
**''A New Voyage Round the World''
**'' A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain''
* John Dennis – ''Vice and Luxury Publick Mischiefs'' (on Mandeville)
* Richard Fiddes
**''A General Treatise of Morality'' (on Mandeville)
**''The Life of Cardinal Wolsey''
*Eliza Haywood
**''La Belle Assemblé''
**''The Fatal Secret'' (fiction)
**''Lasselia''
**''The Masqueraders''
* Thomas Hearne, ed. – '' Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle''
*Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (died 1674) – ''An Appendix to the History of the Grand Rebellion''
*Captain Charles Johnson (attributed to Daniel Defoe or Nathaniel Mist) – ''A General History of the Pyrates – ''Remarks Upon a Late Book'' (against Mandeville)
* John Oldmixon – ''The Critical History of England, Ecclesiastical and Civil''
* Paul de Rapin – ''L'Histoire d'Angleterre''
*Jonathan Swift
**''A Letter to the Shop-keepers... of Ireland'' (as M. B. Drapier)
**''A Letter to Mr. Harding the Printer'' (as Drapier)
**''Some Observations Upon a Paper Relating to Wood's Half-pence'' (as Drapier)
**''A Letter to the Whole People of Ireland'' (Drapier)
**''A Letter to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Molesworth'' (last of the '' Drapier letters'')
**''Seasonable Advice''
*Isaac Watts – ''Logic, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard Against Error in the Affairs of Religion and Human Life, as well as in the Sciences''

Drama

*Colley Cibber – '' Caesar in Egypt''
*John Gay – '' The Captives''
*Ludvig Holberg – ''Henrich og Pernille'' (Henrik and Pernille)
* Robert Hurst – ''The Roman Maid''
*George Jeffreys – '' Edwin''
* Pierre de Marivaux – '' La Fausse Suivante''
* William Phillips – ''Belisarius''
* John Rich – ''The Necromancer; or, History of Dr. Faustus''

Poetry

* Matthew Concanen – ''Miscellaneous Poems''
*Eliza Haywood – ''Poems on Several Occasions''
*Allan Ramsay
**''The Ever Green: Being a collection of Scots Poems''
**''Health''
* Elizabeth Tollet – ''Poems on Several Occasions''
*Voltaire – '' La Henriade''
* Leonard Welsted – ''Epistles, Odes, &c.''
*''See also 1724 in poetry''

Births

*January 12 – Frances Brooke, English novelist and dramatist (died 1789)
*March 20 – Duncan Ban MacIntyre, Scottish Gaelic poet (died 1812)
*April 22 – Immanuel Kant German philosopher (died 1804)
* June 4 – William Gilpin, English writer, painter and originator of "picturesque" (died 1804)
*July 2 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (died 1803)
*July 26 – Ji Yun (纪昀), Chinese poet and scholar (died 1805)
* July 31 – Noël François de Wailly, French grammarian and lexicographer (died 1801)
*October 31 – Christopher Anstey, English writer and poet (died 1805)
*December 13 – Franz Aepinus, German natural philosopher (died 1802)
*''Unknown dates''
** Samuel Derrick, Irish writer (died 1769)
** Frances Sheridan (Frances Chamberlaine), Irish novelist and dramatist (died 1766)

Deaths

*January 1 – Charles Gildon, English critic and dramatist (born c. 1665)
*January 15 – George Wheler, English travel writer (born 1651)
*February 5 – Mary Cowper, English diarist (born 1685)
*February 12 – Elkanah Settle, English poet and dramatist (born 1648)
*March 19 – Johann Christian Thomae, German historian and biographer (born 1668)
*July 11 – Delarivier Manley, writer, playwright and pamphleteer (born c. 1663)
*August 15 – Manko, Japanese poet (year of birth not known)
* October 6 – Charles Rivière Dufresny, French dramatist (born 1648)
*October 29 – William Wollaston, English philosophical writer (born 1659)
*November 29 – Laurence Braddon, English writer and politician (year of birth not known)
*November – Liam an Dúna Mac Cairteáin, Irish poet and soldier (b. 1668)
*''probable'' – Proinsias Ó Doibhlin, Irish poet and priest (year of birth not known)

References

{{Year in literature article categories