1790 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1790.
Events
- February – Xavier de Maistre begins writing Voyage autour de ma chambre while under arrest in Turin in the Kingdom of Sardinia, as the result of a duel.
- May – Following the death of Thomas Warton, William Hayley refuses an offer to succeed him as Poet Laureate of Great Britain. Retired MP Henry James Pye is appointed in his place.
- May 31 – United States President George Washington approves the Copyright Act of 1790.
- June 1 – The Royal Literary Fund is founded in Britain by David Williams.
- June 9 – John Barrie's Philadelphia Spelling Book Arranged Upon a Plan Entirely New becomes the first American book copyrighted.
- unknown date – William Lane establishes the Minerva Press in London, specializing in Gothic fiction.
New books
Fiction
- Mary Pilkington – Delia
- Ann Radcliffe – A Sicilian Romance
- Helen Maria Williams – ''Julia''
Drama
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Torquato Tasso
- William Hayley – Eudora
- Thomas Holcroft – The German Hotel
- Edmond Malone – The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare
- Leandro Fernández de Moratín – El viejo y la niña
- Mariana Starke – The Widow of Malabar
- August von Kotzebue
- *Die Indianer in England
- *Menschenhass und Reue
- * – ''Doktor Bahrdt mit der eisernen Stirn''
Poetry
Non-fiction
- Samuel Ayscough – An Index to the Remarkable Passages and Words Made Use of by Shakespeare, first Shakespeare concordance published
- James Bruce – Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile
- Edmund Burke – Reflections on the Revolution in France
- Hannah More – An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World
- Jean Paul – Leben des vergnügten Schulmeisterlein Maria Wutz
- Alexander Radishchev – Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow
- Louis Claude de Saint-Martin – L'Homme de désir
- Mary Wollstonecraft – ''A Vindication of the Rights of Men''
Births
- January 1 – James Wills, Irish poet
- January 10 – Anders Abraham Grafström, Swedish historian, priest and poet
- January 29 – George Métivier, Guernsey poet writing in Guernésiais
- March 3 – John Austin, English legal philosopher
- March 10 – Jacques Arago, French traveller and writer
- March 18 – Marquis de Custine, French aristocrat and travel writer
- June 9 – Abel-François Villemain, French politician and writer
- June 24 – Helena Ekblom, Swedish writer and preacher
- July 8 – Fitz-Greene Halleck, American poet
- August 8 – Ferenc Kölcsey, Hungarian poet and critic
- October 1 – Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, English novelist
- October 21 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet
- December 8 – Richard Carlile, English advocate of suffrage and press freedom
- December 25 – Anna Eliza Bray, English novelist and travel writer
- Unknown date — Mary Diana Dods, Scottish writer
Deaths
- February 19 – Thomas de Mahy, marquis de Favras, man of letters
- March 20 – Thomas Richards of Coychurch, cleric and lexicographer
- April 3 – Ephraim Kuh, German poet, 58/9
- April 29 – Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French art critic
- May 2 – Martin Madan, English writer and cleric
- May 6 – Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, French military writer
- May 21 – Thomas Warton, English poet and literary historian
- July 7 – François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher
- July 17 – Adam Smith, Scottish philosopher and political economist
- July 25 – William Livingston, American political writer and politician
- unknown date – Maria Vittoria Ottoboni, Italian stage actress, writer and salonist
- probable – Marc-Antoine Eidous, French encyclopedist