1770 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1770.

Events

February 1 – Thomas Jefferson's home at Shadwell, Virginia is destroyed by fire, along with most of his books.
February 6 – Voltaire writes to Abbot la Riche; the letter is said to be the source of his famous statement, "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." This is now generally believed to be a misattribution.
December
*The Library of the Sorbonne in Paris is opened to the public.
*After meeting Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Strasbourg, Johann Gottfried Herder decides to enter the Berlin Academy annual essay competition.
unknown date – Göttinger Musenalmanach is launched by Johann Christian Dieterich.

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
Philip Freneau and Hugh Henry Brackenridge – Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca
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
Immanuel Kant – Dissertation on the Form and Principles of the Sensible and the Intelligible World
Catharine Macaulay – Observations on a Pamphlet Entitled, Thoughts on the Present Discontents
Thomas Percy – Northern Antiquities
Raynal – A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies
Catherine Talbot – Reflections on the Seven Days of the Week
John Horne Tooke – Genuine Copies of All the Letters... Relative to the Execution of Doyle and Valine
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''

February 16 ' – Barbara Hofland, English children's and schoolbook author
March 20 – Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet
December 9 ' – James Hogg, "the Ettrick shepherd", Scottish poet and novelist
Possible year – John Joseph Stockdale, English editor and publisher