1755 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1755.

—Self-deprecating definition by Samuel Johnson from A Dictionary of the English Language

Events

• April 15 – Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published by the group of London booksellers who commissioned it in June 1746,^[1] two months after Johnson was awarded the degree of Master of Arts (A.M.) by the University of Oxford, his alma mater.
• unknown dates
  • Milton's Paradise Lost is translated into French prose by Louis Racine.
  • The first New Testament in the Ume Sami language is published.

New Books

Fiction

• Charlotte Charke – The History of Mr. Henry Dumont and Miss Charlotte Evelyn
• Eliza Haywood as "Exploralibus" – The Invisible Spy
• Samuel Richardson – A Collection of ... Sentiments
• John Shebbeare – Letters on the English Nation
• Tobias Smollett – The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote

Poetry

See main article: article and 1755 in poetry.

• John Byrom – Epistle in Defence of Rhyme
• George Colman, the Elder and Bonnell Thornton (ed.) – Poems by Eminent Ladies
• John Gilbert Cooper – The Tomb of Shakespear
• David Dalrymple (editor) – Edom of Gordon: an ancient Scottish poem
• Stephen Duck – Caesar's Camp

Non-fiction

• Thomas Amory – Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain
• Theophilus Cibber – An Epistle to David Garrick
• Madame de Maintenon – Mémoires
• Philip Doddridge – Hymns Founded on Various Texts
• Henry Fielding – The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
• Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg – Shaagas Aryeh (Hebrew: שאגת אריה, "Roar of the Lion")
• James Hervey – Theron and Aspasio; or a series of letters upon the most important and interesting subjects
• Benjamin Hoadly – Twenty Sermons
• Francis Hutcheson – A System of Moral Philosophy
• Samuel Johnson – A Dictionary of the English Language
• Étienne-Gabriel Morelly – Code de la nature, ou de véritable esprit de ses lois
• Frederic Louis Norden – Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men
• Charles Wesley – An Epistle to John Wesley
• Edward Young – The Centaur not Fabulous; in five letters to a friend

Drama

• John Brown – Barbarosa
• John Cleland – Titus Vespasian
• Thomas Francklin – The Orphan of China
• David Garrick – The Fairies (opera)
• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing – Miss Sara Sampson
• David Mallet – Britannia
• Vicente Garcia de la Huerta – Endimión

Births

• February 17 – Dorothy Kilner, English children's writer (died 1836)
• February 21 – Anne Grant, Scottish poet (died 1838)
• March 5 – Jozef Ignác Bajza, pioneer Slovak novelist, satirist and priest (died 1836)
• March 15 – George Dyer, English poet and classicist (died 1841)
• December 31 – Thomas Grenville, English politician and book collector (died 1846)
• Unknown date – Maria Elizabetha Jacson, English writer on botany and gardening (died 1829)
• 1755/6 – Eliza Fay, English letter-writer and traveler (died 1816)

Deaths

• February 10 – Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, French satirist (born 1689)^[2]
• March – Jane Collier, English novelist (born 1715)
• April 6 – Richard Rawlinson, English antiquary and cleric (born 1690)
• September 9 – Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, German Lutheran church historian (born 1693)
• December 29 – Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, French children's writer (born c. 1695)
• Unknown date – Antoni Serra Serra, Spanish religious writer (born 1708)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Icons, a portrait of England 1750-1800. 2007-08-24. https://web.archive.org/web/20070817164134/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1750-1800. 17 August 2007. dead.
2. Book: Charles de Secondat baron de Montesquieu. Miscellaneous Pieces of M. de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu. 1759. D. Wilson and T. Durham. 41.