1754 in literature

Overview of the events of 1754 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1754.

Events

January 28 – Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity (from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip).
March 2 – Riot at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin. Thomas Sheridan, the manager, resigns, and leaves Ireland on September 15 for London^[1] where his wife Frances Sheridan meets Samuel Richardson.
Élie Catherine Fréron's journal Lettres sur quelques écrits de ce temps is replaced by his Année littéraire.

Jane Collier and Sarah Fielding – The Cry: A New Dramatic Fable
Mary Davys – The Reformed Coquet; or Memoirs of Amoranda
Henry Fielding – The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (enlarged and expanded from the Miscellanies of 1743)
Solomon Gessner – Daphnis
Sarah Scott:
- Agreeable Ugliness
- A Journey Through Every Stage of Life
John Shebbeare – The Marriage Act

Anonymous – Critical Remarks on Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa and Pamela
Thomas Birch – Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth
Charles Bonnet – Essai de psychologie
John Gilbert Cooper – Letters Concerning Taste
John Douglas – Letter on the Criterion of Miracles
John Gillies – Historical Collections Relating to Remarkable Period of the Success of the Gospel
Zachary Grey – Critical, Historical, and Explanatory Notes on Shakespeare
Benjamin Hoadly – Sixteen Sermons
David Hume – The History of England (volume 1)
William Law – The Second Part of the Spirit of Love
Isaac Newton (died 1727) – An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (written 1690)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Discourse on Inequality
Henry St. John – Philosophical Works
Jonathan Swift
- Brotherly Love
- The Works of Jonathan Swift (the Hawkesworth edition)
William Warburton – A View of Lord Bolingbroke's Philosophy
Thomas Warton – Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser

Samuel Crisp – Virginia
David Garrick – Catharine and Petruchio (adapted from The Taming of the Shrew)
John Gay – The Rehearsal at Goatham
Macnamara Morgan:
- Philoclea (from Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia)
- The Sheep-Shearing, or Florizel and Perdita (a farce adapted from The Winter's Tale)
Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon – Le Triumvirat
William Whitehead – Creusa, Queen of Athens

March 24 – Joel Barlow, American poet and diplomat (died 1812)
May 23 – William Drennan, Irish physician, poet, radical and educationalist (died 1820)
July 11 – Thomas Bowdler, English editor (died 1825)
August 2 – Lady Charlotte Murray, English writer and botanist (died 1808)
October 13 – Frances Jacson, English novelist (died 1842)
December 24 – George Crabbe, English poet (died 1832)^[2]
unknown date – John Caradja, Greek Prince of Wallachia, translator and theatrical promoter (died 1844)

January 11 – Wu Jingzi, Chinese scholar and novelist (born 1701)
January 28 – Ludvig Holberg, Norwegian philosopher, historian and playwright (born 1684)^[3]
April 2 – Thomas Carte, English historian (born 1686)
April 9 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher (born 1679)
October 8 – Henry Fielding English novelist (born 1707)^[4]
November 12 – Robert Morris, English architect and writer on architecture (born 1703)

^ Moody, T. W.; et al., eds. (1989). A New History of Ireland. 8: A Chronology of Irish History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821744-2.
^ George Crabbe; Allan Cunningham (1863). George Crabbe's Poetical Works: Preface to the Tales. Crosby and Nichols. p. 5.
^ Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History Volume 13 Western Europe (1700-1800). BRILL. 16 September 2019. p. 413. ISBN 978-90-04-40283-6.
^ Claude Julien Rawson; Maynard Mack Professor of English Claude Rawson (2008). Henry Fielding (1707-1754): Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Magistrate : a Double Anniversary Tribute. Associated University Presse. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-87413-931-0.