1770 in literature

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The year 1770 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• In April, James Cook discovered Botany Bay

New books

• John Armstrong - Miscellanies
• James Beattie -An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth
• Edmund Burke - Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents
• William Duff - Critical Observations on the Writings of the Most Celebrated Geniuses in Poetry
• Edward Gibbon - Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of the Aeneid
• Oliver Goldsmith:
  • The Life of Thomas Parnell
  • Life of Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke
• Ukawsaw Gronniosaw - A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince
• Baron d'Holbach - The System of Nature
• Samuel Johnson - The False Alarm
• Catharine Macaulay - Observations on a Pamphlet Entitled, Thoughts on the Present Discontents (in response to Burke)
• L. S. Mercier - Memoirs of the Year 2500
• Thomas Percy - Northern Antiquities
• Catherine Talbot - Reflections on the Seven Days of the Week
• Augustus Montague Toplady - A Letter to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley
• Voltaire - Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs
• Arthur Young - A Six Months Tour Through the North of England

New drama

Oh, What a Charming Thing's a Battle! "Oh, What a Charming Thing's a Battle!", from Charles Dibdin and Isaac Bickerstaff's The Recruiting Serjeant (1770). Sung by Leon Lishner. Problems listening to this file? See media help.

• Pierre de Beaumarchais - Les Deux Amis
• Isaac Bickerstaffe - The Recruiting Serjeant
• Frances Brooke - Memoirs of the Marquis de St Forlaix
• George Colman the Elder - Man and Wife
• Johannes Ewald - Rolf Krage
• Samuel Foote - The Lame Lover
• Francis Gentleman - The Sultan
• John Hoole - Timanthes
• Hugh Kelly - A Word to the Wise
• George Alexander Stevens - The Court of Alexander

Poetry

• Michael Bruce - Poems on Several Occasions
• David Dalrymple - Ancient Scottish Poems
• Oliver Goldsmith - The Deserted Village
• William Mickle - Voltaire in the Shades
• William Woty - Works

Births

• March 20 - Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet
• April 7 - William Wordsworth
• unknown date - James Hogg
• James Plumptre
• Ludwig van Beethoven
• John Joseph Stockdale, English publisher

Deaths

• August 24 - Thomas Chatterton (suicide)
• November 1 - Alexander Cruden
• November 24 - Charles-Jean-François Hénault
• George Whitefield, evangelist

Awards