This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1759.

Events January – Journal des Dames published in France. By January 15 – Voltaire's satirical novella Candide, ou l'Optimisme is published simultaneously in five countries. January 15 – The British Museum opens in London. March 5 – Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie is proscribed by the Vatican and (on March 8) temporarily suppressed by the French government. The ban is lifted in September to allow publication of a revised version. July 27 – The earliest known professional performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet in North America (in Garrick's version) is given by the American Company in Philadelphia, with Lewis Hallam Jr. as Hamlet. August 12 – In the Seven Years' War Battle of Kunersdorf, the German poet Major Ewald Christian von Kleist is fatally injured. December – Laurence Sterne has the first two volumes of his comic metafictional novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman printed in a small run at his own expense in York, in a shop owned by Ann Ward, dated 1760 and with London publisher Robert Dodsley as distributor. December 22 – The writer and critic William Warburton is nominated Anglican Bishop of Gloucester. unknown dates Rev. Hugh Blair begins to teach a course on the principles of literary composition at the University of Edinburgh, the first held in the field of English literature. Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch becomes a professor of rhetoric and poetry at the University of Jena.

New books Fiction Anonymous – The History of Some of the Penitents in the Magdalen-House (dated 1760) Sarah Fielding – The History of the Countess of Dellwyn Samuel Johnson – The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (on Wikisource). Gotthold Lessing – Fables Madame Riccoboni – Lettres de Milady Juliette Catesby William Rider – Candidus (translation of Candide) Laurence Sterne – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, vols 1–2 Voltaire – Candide

Drama William Hawkins – Cymbeline (adapted from William Shakespeare) Arthur Murphy – The Orphan of China James Townley – High Life Below Stairs

Poetry

Samuel Butler – The Genuine Remains (collected works) Edward Capell – Prolusions John Gilbert Cooper – Ver-Vert (transl.) William Mason – Caractacus Augustus Montague Toplady – Poems on Sacred Subjects

Non-fiction Franz Aepinus – Tentamen Theoriae Electricitatis et Magnetismi (An Attempt at a Theory of Electricity and Magnetism) Edmund Burke – The Annual Register Angélique du Coudray – Abrégé de l'art des accouchements (The Art of Obstetrics) Alexander Gerard – An Essay on Taste Oliver Goldsmith The Bee (periodical solely by Goldsmith) An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe David Hume – The History of England, Under the House of Tudor Richard Hurd – Moral and Political Dialogues Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon – The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon Written by Himself Rai Chatar Man Kayath – Chahar Gulshan William Robertson – The History of Scotland during the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James Adam Smith – The Theory of Moral Sentiments Arthur Young – Reflections on the Present State of Affairs at Home and Abroad Edward Young – Conjectures on Original Composition

Births January 25 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet writing in Braid Scots and English (died 1796) March 5 – John Jamieson, Scottish lexicographer (died 1838) March 29 – Alexander Chalmers, Scottish biographer and editor (died 1834) April 27 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English political writer and advocate of women's rights (died 1797) May 4 (baptism) – Isabella Kelly, Scottish novelist and poet (died 1857) June 17 – Helen Maria Williams, English novelist, poet and translator from French (died 1827) October 13 – Mary Hays, English writer and advocate of women's rights (died 1843) November 10 – Friedrich Schiller, German poet and dramatist (died 1805) December 25 – Richard Porson, English classicist (died 1808) unknown date – Deen Mahomet, author of first book in English by an Indian (died 1851)Michael H. Fisher, "Mahomed, Deen (1759–1851)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP), 2004 Retrieved 13 May 2017.

Deaths June 12 – William Collins, English poet (born 1721) June 26 – Arthur Young, English religious writer and cleric (born 1693) July 27 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French philosopher (born 1698) July 29 – Kata Bethlen, Hungarian memoirist and correspondent (born 1700) August 16 – Eugene Aram, English philologist and murderer, hanged (born 1704) August 24 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet (born 1715) September 5 – Lauritz de Thurah, Danish architectural historian (born 1706) October 7 – Joseph Ames, English bibliographer and antiquary (born 1680) unknown date – Francis Coventry, English clergyman and novelist (born 1725) probable – Anton Wilhelm Amo, West African-born German philosopher (born 1703)

References