1754 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1754.
Events
- January 28 – Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.
- March 2 – Riot at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin. Thomas Sheridan, the manager, resigns, and leaves Ireland on September 15 for London where his wife Frances Sheridan meets Samuel Richardson.
- Élie Catherine Fréron's journal Lettres sur quelques écrits de ce temps is replaced by his Année littéraire.
New books
Fiction
- Jane Collier and Sarah Fielding – The Cry: A New Dramatic Fable
- Mary Davys – The Reformed Coquet; or Memoirs of Amoranda
- Henry Fielding – The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great
- Solomon Gessner – Daphnis
- Sarah Scott:
- *Agreeable Ugliness
- *A Journey Through Every Stage of Life
- John Shebbeare – ''The Marriage Act''
Poetry
- Thomas Cooke – An Ode on Poetry, Painting, and Sculpture
- John Duncombe – The Feminiad
- Henry Jones – The Relief
- William Whitehead – ''Poems''
Non-fiction
- Anonymous – Critical Remarks on Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa and Pamela
- Thomas Birch – Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth
- Charles Bonnet – Essai de psychologie
- John Gilbert Cooper – Letters Concerning Taste
- John Douglas – Letter on the Criterion of Miracles
- John Gillies – Historical Collections Relating to Remarkable Period of the Success of the Gospel
- Zachary Grey – Critical, Historical, and Explanatory Notes on Shakespeare
- Benjamin Hoadly – Sixteen Sermons
- David Hume – The History of England
- William Law – The Second Part of the Spirit of Love
- Isaac Newton – An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Discourse on Inequality
- Henry St. John – Philosophical Works
- Jonathan Swift
- *Brotherly Love
- *The Works of Jonathan Swift
- William Warburton – A View of Lord Bolingbroke's Philosophy
- Thomas Warton – ''Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser''
Drama
- Samuel Crisp – Virginia
- David Garrick – Catharine and Petruchio
- John Gay – The Rehearsal at Goatham
- Macnamara Morgan:
- *Philoclea
- *The Sheep-Shearing, or Florizel and Perdita
- Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon – Le Triumvirat
- William Whitehead – ''Creusa, Queen of Athens''
Births
- March 24 – Joel Barlow, American poet and diplomat
- May 23 – William Drennan, Irish physician, poet, radical and educationalist
- July 11 – Thomas Bowdler, English editor
- August 2 – Lady Charlotte Murray, English writer and botanist
- October 13 – Frances Jacson, English novelist
- December 24 – George Crabbe, English poet
- unknown date – John Caradja, Greek Prince of Wallachia, translator and theatrical promoter
Deaths
- January 11 – Wu Jingzi, Chinese scholar and novelist
- January 28 – Ludvig Holberg, Norwegian philosopher, historian and playwright
- April 2 – Thomas Carte, English historian
- April 9 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher
- October 8 – Henry Fielding English novelist
- November 12 – Robert Morris, English architect and writer on architecture