1742 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1742.

Events

• December 2 – The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in print in the United States.
• The Stockholm Gazette, founded by Peter Momma, begins publication.
• Publisher Robert Foulis acquires his own printing press in Glasgow.
• French typefounder Pierre Simon Fournier's Modèles des Caractères presents his system of point sizes for typography.^[1]
• Pierre de Marivaux is elected to the Académie française.

New fiction

• Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon – Le Sopha, conte moral
• Henry Fielding – Joseph Andrews
• Eliza Haywood – The Virtuous Villager
• Charles Jervas (misprinted as "Jarvis") – English translation of Don Quixote

New drama

• Charlotte Charke – Tit for Tat
• Charles Jennens – Messiah (libretto and music for Handel's piece)
• José de Cañizares – El anillo de Giges
• Ignacio de Luzán – La virtud coronada

Poetry

• William Collins – Persian Eclogues
• Thomas Cooke – Original Poems
• James Hammond – Love Elegies
• James Merrick – The Destruction of Troy
• William Shenstone – The School-Mistress
• William Somervile – Field Sports
• Charles Hanbury Williams – The Country Girl: An ode
• Edward Young – Night Thoughts
• José Gerardo Hervás, Jorge Pitillas – Sátira contra los malos escritores de este siglo

Non-fiction

• Colley Cibber – A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope (in re Pope's satirizing of Cibber)
• Philip Doddridge – Evidences of Christianity
• Pierre Simon Fournier – Modèles des Caractères
• David Hume – Essays Moral and Political vol. ii
• Colin Maclaurin – Treatise on Fluxions
• John Oldmixon – Memoirs of the Press, Historical and Political
• Horace Walpole and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams – The Lessons for the Day (satire on William Pulteney, Bolingbroke, and the "Patriot Whigs").
• William Warburton – A Critical and Philosophical Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man
• John Wesley
  • The Character of a Methodist
  • The Principles of a Methodist
• George Whitefield – Nine Sermons
• Ignacio de Luzán – Carta en defensa de España
• Benito Jerónimo Feijoo – Cartas eruditas y curiosas

Births

• January 1 – Isaac Reed, English Shakespearean editor (died 1807)
• March 25 – William Combe, English writer, poet and adventurer (died 1823)
• June 25 – Johann Schweighäuser, German classical scholar (died 1830)
• September 14 – James Wilson, American pamphleteer and publisher (died 1798)
• October 6 – Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian author (died 1785)
• Unknown date – Ralph Broome, English pamphleteer (died 1805)
• Probable year of birth – Mihály Bakos (Miháo Bakoš), Slovene hymnist and Lutheran minister (died 1803)

Deaths

• March 23 – Jean-Baptiste Dubos, French author (born 1670)
• April 27 – Nicholas Amhurst, English poet and political writer (born 1697)
• July 9 – John Oldmixon, English historian (born 1673)
• July 14 – Richard Bentley, English scholar and critic (born 1662)
• July 19 – William Somervile, English poet (born 1675)
• November 24 – Andrew Bradford, American publisher (born 1686)

References