1774 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1774.

Events

February 22 – The English legal case of Donaldson v Beckett is decided in the House of Lords, denying the continued existence of a perpetual common law copyright and holding that copyright is a creation of statute and can be limited in its duration.^[1] This does permit authors to claim copyright on their own works.
September 14 – A new Stadsschouwburg (municipal theatre) in Amsterdam opens with the première of Lucretia Wilhelmina van Merken's tragedy Jacob Simonszoon de Ryk.^[2]
September 29 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's semi-autobiographical epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) (written January – March) is published anonymously in Leipzig, Germany; it is influential in the Sturm und Drang movement and Romanticism.
unknown dates
- After the destruction of the Schloss Weimar by fire, Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, forms a commission for its reconstruction directed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.^[3]^[4]
- James Lackington begins in the London bookselling business.
- Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider becomes secretary to Richard François Philippe Brunck.
- The National and University Library of Slovenia in Ljubljana is established as the Lyceum Library, from the remains of the dissolved Jesuit library and several monastery libraries.^[5]
- Alberto Fortis publishes Viaggio in Dalmazia ("Journey to Dalmatia") and starts Morlachism.^[6]

Jeremy Bentham – The White Bull
Henry Brooke – Juliet Grenville
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – The Sorrows of Young Werther
Charles Johnstone – The History of Arsaces
The Newgate Calendar
Christoph Martin Wieland – Die Abderiten, eine sehr wahrscheinliche Geschichte (The Abderites: A Very Probable Story)

James Beattie – The Minstrel, volume 2
William Dunkin – Poetical Works
Oliver Goldsmith – Retaliation
Richard Graves – The Progress of Gallantry
William Mason – An Heroic Postscript to the Public
Hannah More – The Inflexible Captive
Samuel Jackson Pratt (as Courtney Melmoth) – The Tears of A Genius, occasioned by the Death of Dr. Goldsmith
Henry James Pye – Farringdon Hill
Mary Scott – The Female Advocate
Candido Maria Trigueros – El poeta filósofo o Poesías filosóficas en verso pentámetro^[7]
William Whitehead – Plays and Poems, by William Whitehead, Esq. Poet Laureat

Giacomo Casanova – Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia
Mary Deverell – Sermons
Alberto Fortis – Viaggio in Dalmazia
Martin Gerbert – De cantu et musica sacra
Oliver Goldsmith
- The Grecian History
- An History of the Earth and Animated Nature
Henry Home – Sketches of the History of Man
John Hutchins (died 1773) – The History and Antiquities of Dorset
Thomas Jefferson – A Summary View of the Rights of British America
Samuel Johnson – The Patriot
Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz – The History of Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina (English translation of Histoire de la Louisiane (1758) in 1 vol.)
Joseph Priestley – Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
William Richardson – A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters
Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes – Discurso sobre el fomento de la industria popular
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield – Letters to his Son
Sugita Genpaku – Kaitai Shinsho (解体新書, "New Text on Anatomy", Japanese translation of Ontleedkundige Tafelen)
Horace Walpole – A Description of Strawberry-Hill
Thomas Warton – The History of English Poetry, volume 1
John Wesley – Thoughts upon Slavery

January 1 – Pietro Giordani, Italian translator, scholar and writer (died 1848)
February 24 – Archibald Constable, Scottish publisher (died 1827)
July 14 – Francis Lathom, Dutch-born English Gothic novelist and dramatist (died 1832)
August 12 – Robert Southey, English poet and Poet Laureate (died 1843)

^ 2 Brown's Parl. Cases 129, 1 Eng. Rep. 837; 4 Burr. 2408, 98 Eng. Rep. 257; 17 Cobbett's Parl. Hist. 953 (1813).
^ te Winkel, Jan (1924). De ontwikkelingsgang der Nederlandsche letterkunde V, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche letterkunde van de Republiek der Vereenigde Nederlanden (in Dutch). Vol. 3 (2 ed.). Haarlem: Héritiers F. Bohn. p. 401.
^ "Das Stadtschloss Weimar/The Palace at Weimar" (PDF). Klassik Stiftung Weimar. 2010. Retrieved 2014-06-09.
^ Martin Geck (2003). Bach. Haus Publishing. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-904341-16-1.
^ Miriam Drake (20 May 2003). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Second Edition -. CRC Press. p. 2073. ISBN 978-0-8247-2079-7.
^ Milić Brett, Branislava (2014). Imagining the Morlacchi in Fortis and Goldoni (PhD). University of Alberta. pp. 1–213. doi:10.7939/R3MM45.
^ Cándido María Trigueros (1774). El poeta filosofo; o poesias filosoficas en verso pentametro. En la Imprenta de Don Manuel Nicolàs Vazquez, y Compañia.
^ BBC Two: Writing Scotland.