1781 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1781.

Events

March 27 – George Crabbe writes to Edmund Burke, enclosing examples of his work.^[1] The outcome is the publication of Crabbe's poem The Library.^[2]
August 5 – Antonín Strnad completes an inventory of the contents of the Clementinum in Prague, which becomes a national library.^[3]

Uncertain date

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.^[4]

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)

^ Edmund Burke (1852). The Works and Correspondence Of...Edmund Burke. F. & J. Rivington. p. 472.
^ Ainger, Alfred (1903). Crabbe. New York: Macmillan, pp. 31–32.
^ Zdislav Šíma (2001). Astronomie a Klementinum. Národní knihovna České republiky. p. 94. ISBN 978-80-7050-386-7.
^ 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.
^ Philip L. Astuto (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.