1781 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1781.

Events

George Crabbe writes to Edmund Burke asking for financial assistance. The outcome is the publication of Crabbe's poem The Library.^[1]
Rudolf Erich Raspe (anonymously) publishes "M-h-s-nsche Geschichten" ("M-h-s-n Stories") in the Berlin humor magazine Vade mecum für lustige Leute ("Handbook for Fun-loving People"), the first appearance of Baron Munchausen in fiction.^[2]
A national library is established in the Clementinum in Prague.

William Cowper – Anti-Thelyphthora
George Crabbe – The Library
Maria De Fleury – Poems, Occasioned by the Confinement and Acquittal of the Right Honourable Lord George Gordon, President of the Protestant Association
Santa Rita Durão – Caramuru
Anne Francis – A Poetical Translation of the Song of Solomon
Philip Freneau – The British Prison-Ship
William Hayley – The Triumphs of Temper
George Keate – Works
Samuel Jackson Pratt – Sympathy

Maria De Fleury – Unrighteous Abuse Detected and Chastised
Mary Deverell – Sermons on the Following Subjects...
Edward Gibbon – Volumes II and III of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Henry Home – Loose Hints Upon Education
Samuel Johnson
- The Beauties of Johnson
- Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
Immanuel Kant – Critique of Pure Reason
John Moore – A View of Society and Manners in Italy
John Newton – Cardiphonia
John Nichols – Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth
Magister Pianco (Hans Heinrich von Ecker und Eckhoffen) – Der Rosenkreutzer in seiner Blösse
Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Essai sur l'origine des langues

January 26 – Ludwig Achim von Arnim, German poet and novelist (died 1831)
January 30 – Adelbert von Chamisso, German poet and botanist (died 1838)
February 26 – Peter Andresen Oelrichs, Heligoland-born lexicographer (died 1869)
March 17 – Ebenezer Elliott, English poet (died 1849)
May 14 – Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, German historian (died 1873)
June 12 (probable) – Christian Isobel Johnstone, Scottish journalist and novelist (died 1857)
November 6 – Lucy Aikin (Mary Godolphin), English historical writer (died 1864)
December 6 – Charlotte von Ahlefeld, German novelist (died 1849)
December 11 – David Brewster, Scottish scientist and writer (died 1868)

February 15 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German philosopher and dramatist (born 1729)
February 24 – Edward Capell, English Shakespeare scholar (born 1713)
March 1 – Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, French historian, classicist and lexicographer (born 1697)
March 17 – Johannes Ewald, Danish dramatist and poet (born 1743)
May 8 – Richard Jago, English poet and cleric (born 1715)
June 24 – Anna Miller, English poet and salon hostess (born 1741)
November 2 – José Francisco de Isla, Spanish satirist (born 1703)
November 4 – Johann Nikolaus Götz, German poet (born 1721)
December 7 – Judith Madan, English poet (born 1702)

^ Ainger, Alfred (1903). Crabbe. New York: Macmillan, pp. 31–32.
^ Blamires, David (2009). "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen". Telling Tales: The Impact of Germany on English Children's Books 1780–1918. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. pp. 8–21.
^ Astuto, Philip L. (2003). Eugenio Espejo (1747-1795), Reformador ecuatoriano de la Ilustración. Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana. p. 82. ISBN 9978-92-241-5.
^ "Manuscripts and Rare Printed Works of Hannah More (1745-1833) and her circle from the Clark Library, Los Angeles". Women, Morality And Advice Literature. Retrieved 2013-02-03.