1789 in literature
Overview of the events of 1789 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1789.
Events
- January 22 – William Hill Brown's anonymous sentimental epistolary novel The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature, usually considered the first American novel, is published in Boston.[1]
- February 7 – Première of John Philip Kemble's production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus with himself in the title rôle and his sister Sarah Siddons as Volumnia, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.[2]
- May 21 – Tomás António Gonzaga is arrested for complicity in the Inconfidência Mineira in Brazil.[3]
- May 26 – Friedrich Schiller gives his first lecture as professor of history and philosophy at Jena.[4]
- November 1 – Robert Burns informs friends that he has been appointed an exciseman in Scotland.[5]
- December – Première of Olympe de Gouges's abolitionist play Zamore et Mirza (written 1784; published 1788) as L'Esclavage des nègres ("Slavery of the negroes"); shut down after three performances.
- December 24 – The literary Thomas de Mahy, marquis de Favras (born 1744) is arrested by radicals of the French Revolution, charged with plotting to help King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette escape from the country. When convicted of treason and handed his official death sentence by the court clerk, he reads it, shakes his head and says: "I see you have made three spelling mistakes."[6]
- December 28 – Première of Anton Tomaž Linhart's comedy Županova Micka ("Micka, the Mayor's Daughter", an adaptation of Joseph Richter's Die Feldmühle), the first theatrical work in Slovene.[7]
- unknown dates
- Publication in Calcutta of Sir William Jones's Śacontalā, or the fatal ring: an Indian drama, a translation of Kālidāsa's 4th/5th century play Abhijñānaśākuntalam, the first translation of a classical Indian drama into a Western language.[8]
- The Children's Magazine, the first American periodical for children, is published in Hartford, Connecticut. It lasts only three months.
New books
Fiction
Children
- François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil – Petit Jacques et Georgette, ou les Petits montagnards auvergnats (Little Jacques and Georgette, or the Little Mountain Dwellers of Auvergne)
Drama
Poetry
Non-fiction
Births
Deaths
References
|
|