This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1785.
Events
January 1 The Daily Universal Register (later The Times) is first published, in London. The Paris theatre company Théâtre des Variétés-Amusantes moves to a temporary new building in the gardens of the Palais-Royal. February 2 – Sarah Siddons makes her London debut in her most famous rôle, Lady Macbeth, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. February – The English heiress Mary Bowes escapes from her husband, Andrew Robinson Stoney, and begins divorce proceedings. April 14 – After today's death of the English poet William Whitehead in London, Thomas Warton succeeds him as Poet Laureate of Great Britain, William Mason having refused the post. May 22 – Robert Burns' first child, Elizabeth ("Dear-bought Bess"), is born to his mother's servant, Elizabeth Paton. June 23 – The Litvak rabbi and writer Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg dies at Metz in France after a book-case topples on him, according to tradition. November 28 – The Marquis de Sade finishes writing The 120 Days of Sodom (Les 120 Journées de Sodome) while imprisoned in the Bastille; it will not be published until 1904. unknown date Giacomo Casanova is appointed librarian to Count Joseph Karl von Waldstein at the Duchcov Château in Bohemia. A new building for the Prussian Royal Library is completed in Berlin.
New books Fiction Anna Maria Bennett – Anna Elizabeth Blower – Maria Denis Diderot, part trans. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Jacques the Fatalist (Jacques der Fatalist und sein Herr) Richard Graves – Eugenius Karl Philipp Moritz – Anton Reiser (to 1790)
Children Rudolf Erich Raspe, anonymously – Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia
Drama George Colman the Younger – Two to One Richard Cumberland – The Natural Son Elizabeth Inchbald Appearance Is Against Them I'll Tell You What Leonard MacNally – Fashionable Levities Frederick Reynolds – Werter Emanuel Schikaneder – Der Fremde
Poetry
János Bacsanyi – The Valour of the Magyars Samuel Egerton Brydges – Sonnets and other Poems Robert Burns – "To a Mouse" William Combe – The Royal Dream William Cowper – The Task George Crabbe – The News-Paper William Hayley – A Philosophical, Historical and Moral Essay on Old Maids Samuel Johnson – The Poetical Works Friedrich Schiller – Ode to Joy (An die Freude) Charles Wilkins (translator) – Bhagvat-geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon John Wolcot as "Peter Pindar" The Lousiad Lyric Odes, for the Year 1785 Ann Yearsley – Poems
Non-fiction Ethan Allen – Reason: the Only Oracle of Man James Boswell – The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Edmund Burke – Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's Debts Francis Grose – A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Samuel Johnson – Prayers and Meditations Immanuel Kant – Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten) William Paley – The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy Clara Reeve – The Progress of Romance Thomas Reid – Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man John Scott – Critical Essays on Some of the Poems of Several English Poets
Births January 4 – Jakob Grimm, German philologist, jurist and mythologist (died 1863) January 31 – Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová, Czech cookery writer (died 1845) March 3 – Frances Mary Richardson Currer, English heiress and bibliophile (died 1861) March 7 – Alessandro Manzoni, Italian poet and novelist (died 1873) March 18 – He Changling (賀長齡), Chinese scholar and writer on governance (died 1848) March 21 – Henry Kirke White, English poet (died 1806) April 4 – Bettina von Arnim, German novelist (died 1859) April 7 – Lorenzo Hammarsköld, Swedish poet and author (died 1827) May 3 – Vicente López y Planes, Argentine politician and writer (died 1856) May 18 – John Wilson (Christopher North), Scottish writer (died 1854) August 15 – Thomas De Quincey, English essayist (died 1859) October 18 – Thomas Love Peacock, English novelist, poet and East India Company official (died 1866) October 30 – Hermann, Fürst von Pückler-Muskau – German travel and gardening writer (died 1871) unknown date – Neofit Bozveli, Bulgarian educator and clergyman, early figure in the Bulgarian National Revival (died 1848)
Deaths January 19 – Jonathan Toup, English classicist, critic and cleric (born 1713) April 14 – William Whitehead, English poet laureate (born 1715) May 4 – János Sajnovics, Hungarian linguist (born 1733) August 31 – Pietro Chiari, Italian playwright, novelist and librettist (born 1712) September 17 – Antoine Léonard Thomas, French poet and critic (born 1732) November 12 – Richard Burn, English legal writer (born 1709) November 25 – Richard Glover, English poet and politician (born 1712) December 6 – Kitty Clive, English actress and writer of farce (born 1711) December 18 – Joseph Allegranza, Milanese historian (born 1715) December 29 – Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian-born Danish poet and satirist (born 1742) unknown date – Ali Haider Multani, Punjabi Sufi poet (born 1690)
References
External links 1785 Books at Goodreads