1724 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1724.

Events

• January – Andrew Michael Ramsay goes to Rome to tutor the two sons of James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite pretender to the British throne.
• August – Thomas Longman establishes the Longman publishing house in London.
• November 16 – An "autobiographical" Narrative of the life of notorious criminal Jack Sheppard, said to be by Daniel Defoe, goes on sale at Sheppard's execution at Tyburn.

New books

Prose

• Anonymous (attributed to Daniel Defoe) – A Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes, &c. of John Sheppard
• Gilbert Burnet (died 1715) – Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time, Vol. I
• Samuel Clarke – Sermons of Samuel Clarke
• Anthony Collins – Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion with An Apology for Free Debate and Liberty of Writing
• Mary Davys – The Reform'd Coquet (novella)
• Daniel Defoe
  • Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress
  • A New Voyage Round the World
  • A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain
• John Dennis – Vice and Luxury Publick Mischiefs (on Mandeville)
• Richard Fiddes
  • A General Treatise of Morality (on Mandeville)
  • The Life of Cardinal Wolsey
• Eliza Haywood
  • La Belle Assemblé
  • The Fatal Secret (fiction)
  • Lasselia
  • The Masqueraders
• Thomas Hearne, ed. – Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle
• Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (died 1674) – An Appendix to the History of the Grand Rebellion
• Captain Charles Johnson (attributed to Daniel Defoe or Nathaniel Mist) – A General History of the Pyrates
• William Law – Remarks Upon a Late Book (against Mandeville)
• John Oldmixon – The Critical History of England, Ecclesiastical and Civil
• Paul de Rapin – L'Histoire d'Angleterre
• Jonathan Swift
  • A Letter to the Shop-keepers... of Ireland (as M. B. Drapier)
  • A Letter to Mr. Harding the Printer (as Drapier)
  • Some Observations Upon a Paper Relating to Wood's Half-pence (as Drapier)
  • A Letter to the Whole People of Ireland (Drapier)
  • A Letter to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Molesworth (last of the Drapier letters)
  • Seasonable Advice
• Isaac Watts – Logic, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard Against Error in the Affairs of Religion and Human Life, as well as in the Sciences

Drama

• Colley Cibber – Caesar in Egypt
• John Gay – The Captives
• Ludvig Holberg – Henrich og Pernille (Henrik and Pernille)
• Robert Hurst – The Roman Maid
• George Jeffreys – Edwin
• Pierre de Marivaux – La Fausse Suivante
• William Phillips – Belisarius
• John Rich – The Necromancer; or, History of Dr. Faustus

Poetry

• Matthew Concanen – Miscellaneous Poems
• Eliza Haywood – Poems on Several Occasions
• Allan Ramsay
  • The Ever Green: Being a collection of Scots Poems
  • Health
• Elizabeth Tollet – Poems on Several Occasions
• Voltaire – La Henriade
• Leonard Welsted – Epistles, Odes, &c.
• See also 1724 in poetry

Births

• January 12 – Frances Brooke, English novelist and dramatist (died 1789)
• March 20 – Duncan Ban MacIntyre, Scottish Gaelic poet (died 1812)
• April 22 – Immanuel Kant German philosopher (died 1804)
• June 4 – William Gilpin, English writer, painter and originator of "picturesque" (died 1804)
• July 2 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (died 1803)
• July 26 – Ji Yun (纪昀), Chinese poet and scholar (died 1805)
• July 31 – Noël François de Wailly, French grammarian and lexicographer (died 1801)
• October 31 – Christopher Anstey, English writer and poet (died 1805)
• December 13 – Franz Aepinus, German natural philosopher (died 1802)
• Unknown dates
  • Samuel Derrick, Irish writer (died 1769)
  • Frances Sheridan (Frances Chamberlaine), Irish novelist and dramatist (died 1766)

Deaths

• January 1 – Charles Gildon, English critic and dramatist (born c. 1665)
• January 15 – George Wheler, English travel writer (born 1651)
• February 5 – Mary Cowper, English diarist (born 1685)
• February 12 – Elkanah Settle, English poet and dramatist (born 1648)
• March 19 – Johann Christian Thomae, German historian and biographer (born 1668)
• July 11 – Delarivier Manley, writer, playwright and pamphleteer (born c. 1663)
• August 15 – Manko, Japanese poet (year of birth not known)
• October 6 – Charles Rivière Dufresny, French dramatist (born 1648)
• October 29 – William Wollaston, English philosophical writer (born 1659)
• November 29 – Laurence Braddon, English writer and politician (year of birth not known)
• November – Liam an Dúna Mac Cairteáin, Irish poet and soldier (b. 1668)
• probable – Proinsias Ó Doibhlin, Irish poet and priest (year of birth not known)

References

1. 1724
2. List of years in literature
3. 1724 in science
4. 1714 in poetry
5. 1724 in music
6. 1725 in literature
7. 1721 in literature
8. 1724 in poetry
9. German literature
10. 1726 in literature
11. 1723 in literature
12. Augustan literature
13. 1724 in architecture
14. 1734 in literature
15. 1732 in literature
16. Daniel Defoe
17. Punjabi literature
18. 1728 in literature
19. 1731 in literature
20. 1724 in Wales