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1790 in literature

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{{Year nav topic5|1790|literature|poetry}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2020}}

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1790.

Events

  • February – Xavier de Maistre begins writing Voyage autour de ma chambre (Voyage Around my Room, published 1794) while under arrest in Turin in the Kingdom of Sardinia, as the result of a duel.{{cite book|author=Maike Oergel|title=(Re-)Writing the Radical: Enlightenment, Revolution and Cultural Transfer in 1790s Germany, Britain and France|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fEHLf32rRqQC&pg=PA239|date=19 December 2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-029011-0|pages=239}}
  • May – Following the death of Thomas Warton, William Hayley refuses an offer to succeed him as Poet Laureate of Great Britain. Retired MP Henry James Pye is appointed in his place.{{cite book|author1=Evelyn Morchard Bishop|author2=Oliver Stonor|title=Blake's Hayley: The Life, Works, and Friendships of William Hayley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ad5aAAAAMAAJ|year=1951|publisher=Gollancz|page=120}}
  • May 31 – United States President George Washington approves the Copyright Act of 1790.{{Cite web |url=http://digital-law-online.info/patry/patry5.html |first=William F. |last=Patry |title=Copyright Law and Practice |accessdate=2014-01-01}}
  • June 1 – The Royal Literary Fund is founded in Britain by David Williams.{{cite book|author=Jon Mee|title=Print, Publicity, and Popular Radicalism in the 1790s: The Laurel of Liberty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZErDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA206|date=26 May 2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-13361-7|pages=206}}
  • June 9 – John Barrie's Philadelphia Spelling Book Arranged Upon a Plan Entirely New becomes the first American book copyrighted.{{Cite web |url=http://importance.corante.com/archives/2005/06/09/june_9_1790_first_book_copyrighted_in_us_the_philadelphia_spelling_book.php |first=Ernest |last=Miller |title=June 9, 1790 |work=Corante |date=2005-06-09 |accessdate=2014-05-23 |archive-date=2014-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102191132/http://importance.corante.com/archives/2005/06/09/june_9_1790_first_book_copyrighted_in_us_the_philadelphia_spelling_book.php |url-status=dead }}
  • unknown date – William Lane establishes the Minerva Press in London, specializing in Gothic fiction.

New books

=Fiction=

=Drama=

=Poetry=

{{main|1790 in poetry}}

=Non-fiction=

Births

  • January 1 – James Wills, Irish poet (died 1868)
  • January 10 – Anders Abraham Grafström, Swedish historian, priest and poet (died 1870){{cite web|url= https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=13127|title=Anders A Grafström|publisher=Svenskt biografiskt lexikon|author=Gösta Lundström |access-date=January 1, 2019|language=sv}}
  • January 29 – George Métivier, Guernsey poet writing in Guernésiais (died 1881)
  • March 3 – John Austin, English legal philosopher (died 1859)
  • March 10 – Jacques Arago, French traveller and writer (died 1855){{cite book | last = Pietsch | first = Theodore | title = Collection building in ichthyology and herpetology | publisher = American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists | location = Lawrence, Kan | year = 1997 | isbn = 9780935868913 | page=56}}
  • March 18 – Marquis de Custine, French aristocrat and travel writer (died 1857){{cite book | last = France | first = Peter | title = L'invitation au voyage : studies in honour of Peter France | publisher = Voltaire Foundation | location = Oxford | year = 2000 | isbn = 9780729407304 | page=251}}
  • June 9 – Abel-François Villemain, French politician and writer (died 1870){{cite book|author=John Clark Ridpath|title=The Standard American Encyclopedia of Arts, Sciences, History, Biography, Geography, Statistics, and General Knowledge|publisher=Standard American Publishing Company|year=1900|page=2620}}
  • June 24 – Helena Ekblom, Swedish writer and preacher (died 1859)
  • July 8 – Fitz-Greene Halleck, American poet (died 1867){{cite book | last = Leary | first = Lewis | title = American Literature To 1900 | publisher = Macmillan Education, Limited | location = London | year = 1980 | isbn = 9781349164189 | page=145}}
  • August 8 – Ferenc Kölcsey, Hungarian poet and critic (died 1838){{Cite web |title=Ferenc Kolcsey |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferenc-Kolcsey |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=20 March 2018 |language=en}}
  • October 1 – Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, English novelist (died 1846)
  • October 21 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet (died 1869){{cite book | last = Claeys | first = Gregory | title = Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century thought | publisher = Routledge | location = London New York | year = 2005 | isbn = 9780415244190 | page=266}}
  • December 8 – Richard Carlile, English advocate of suffrage and press freedom (died 1843)
  • December 25 – Anna Eliza Bray, English novelist and travel writer (died 1883)
  • Unknown date — Mary Diana Dods (also as David Lyndsay and Walter Sholto Douglas), Scottish writer (died 1830 in literature)

Deaths

  • February 19 – Thomas de Mahy, marquis de Favras, man of letters (born 1744; executed)
  • March 20 – Thomas Richards of Coychurch, cleric and lexicographer (born c.1710){{Cite DNB |wstitle=Richards, Thomas (1710?-1790)}}
  • April 3 – Ephraim Kuh, German poet, 58/9{{Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie |17 |317 |318 |Kuh, Ephraim |Franck |ADB:Kuh, Ephraim}}
  • April 29 – Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French art critic (born 1715){{Cite book |title=The English cyclopædia: A new dictionary of universal knowledge |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QuY-AAAAYAAJ_2 |year=1858 |publisher=Bradbury & Evans |pages=299}}
  • May 2 – Martin Madan, English writer and cleric (born 1726)
  • May 6 – Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, French military writer (born 1743)
  • May 21 – Thomas Warton, English poet and literary historian (born 1798){{Cite book |title=The Aldine Magazine of Biography, Bibliography, Criticism and the Arts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WdJNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA265|year=1839 |publisher=Simpkin, Marshall & Company |pages=265}}
  • July 7 – François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher (born 1721){{Cite book |author=Heinz Moenkemeyer |title=François Hemsterhuis |url=https://archive.org/details/francoishemsterh00moen |url-access=registration |year=1975 |publisher=Twayne Publishers |isbn=978-0-8057-2419-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/francoishemsterh00moen/page/n9 8]}}
  • July 17 – Adam Smith, Scottish philosopher and political economist (born 1723){{Cite web |title=Adam Smith (1723–1790) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/smith_adam.shtml |website=BBC |accessdate=20 March 2018}}
  • July 25 – William Livingston, American political writer and politician (born 1723){{Cite book |author=Theodore Sedgwick |title=A Memoir of the Life of William Livingston |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OeqluqI1cm8C&pg=PA416 |date=March 2009 |publisher=Applewood Books |isbn=978-1-4290-1699-5 |pages=416}}
  • unknown date – Maria Vittoria Ottoboni, Italian stage actress, writer and salonist (b. 1721)E. Verga, Storia della vita milanese, Milano 1931
  • probable – Marc-Antoine Eidous, French encyclopedist (born c. 1724){{cite book|title=Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5FgoAQAAIAAJ|year=1984|publisher=Institut et musée Voltaire|page=491}}

References

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