1709 in literature explained
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1709.
Events
- February 1 or 2 – Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, is rescued from the Juan Fernández Islands, where he was marooned, and begins his return to civilization.
- April 12 – The magazine The Tatler is founded in London by Richard Steele, writing as Isaac Bickerstaff. On July 8 "Mrs. (Phoebe) Crackenthorpe" (perhaps Delarivier Manley) begins publication of The Female Tatler.
- April 26 – An act of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland provides for public libraries in presbyteries.[1]
- May–October 20 – Delarivier Manley's roman à clef The New Atalantis (Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of both Sexes, From The New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean) is published in London (in two volumes, anonymously), purporting to be translated from Italian. Its satire of the Whigs is so scurrilous that the author is detained for questioning from October 29 to November 5.[2] It goes through seven editions.
- May 2 – Alexander Pope's career as a poet is launched with the publication of the anthology Poetical Miscellanies, The Sixth Part, edited by John Dryden and published by Jacob Tonson in London.
- June 28 – Historian Gustaf Adlerfelt is killed at the Battle of Poltava; his eyewitness account is continued by his son.[3]
- unknown dates
- The Works of Mr William Shakespear edited by dramatist Nicholas Rowe appears. It is the first modern edition of Shakespeare's plays, including scene divisions, dramatis personæ and a prefatory account of Shakespeare's life, the first substantial biography of him. An unauthorised seventh volume, including Shakespeare's poems, is perhaps edited by Charles Gildon.
- Ælfric of Eynsham's An English-Saxon Homily on the Birth-day of St. Gregory is translated from Old English by Elizabeth Elstob.
New books
Prose
Drama
Poetry
See main article: article and 1709 in poetry.
- John Reynolds – Death's Vision Represented in a Philosophical Sacred Poem
- Poetical Miscellanies: The Sixth Part (also called Tonson's Miscellanies)
Births
- April 14 – Charles Collé, French dramatist (died 1783)
- July 24 – James Harris, English grammarian (died 1780)
- August 7 – Jean-Jacques Lefranc, Marquis de Pompignan, French polymath, author and poet (died 1784)
- August 29 – Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset, French poet and dramatist (died 1777)
- September 3 – Joan Claudi Peiròt, French writer in Occitan (died 1795)
- September 18 – Samuel Johnson, English author, critic, lexicographer and poet (died 1784)
- November 1 – Ignatius von Weitenauer, German Jesuit writer, exegete and Orientalist (died 1783)
- November 23 – Julien Offray de La Mettrie, French philosopher and physician (died 1751)
- December 14 – Caspar Friedrich Hachenberg, German grammarian (died 1793)
- unknown dates
- probable
Deaths
Notes and References
- http://www.british-history.ac.uk/church-scotland-records/acts/1638-1842/pp432-440#h3-0012 Act XI
- Web site: Ros . Ballaster . Rosalind Ballaster. Manley, Delarivier (c.1670–1724) . . Oxford University Press . 2004 . 2013-07-30 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/17939.
- https://runeberg.org/sbh/ Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon
- Haiman . György . Notes and Comments. International Assistance in the Establishment of Georgian Printing . Acta Litteraria Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae . 27 . 1–2 . 222–227 . 1985.
- Cartojan . Nicolae . Nicolae Cartojan . Epoca lui Brâncoveanu . Revista Fundațiilor Regale . XI . 10 . 157–158 . 1944.
- Book: Bernard Burke. Saint James's Magazine, and Heraldic and Historical Register. 1850. E. Churton.. 471.
- Book: William Michael Rossetti. Humorous poems by English and American writers. 1878. Ward, Lock, & Company. 210.
- Web site: John Cleland - British author . Encyclopædia Britannica . 18 January 2018 . en.
- Book: Anthony Levi. Guide to French literature: beginnings to 1789. 1994. St. James Press. 978-1-55862-159-6. 253.
