1797 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1797.

Events

June 5 – Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, living at Nether Stowey in the Quantock Hills, Somerset, renews his friendship with William Wordsworth and Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, who take a house nearby.
July 15 – George Colman's comedy The Heir at Law opens in London. It introduces the character of Dr. Pangloss to the stage and the phrase "Queen Anne's dead" to the language.
August – The British Home Office sends an agent to Nether Stowey to investigate Coleridge and Wordsworth who are suspected of being French spies.
October – Coleridge composes the poem Kubla Khan in an opium-induced dream, writing down only a fragment of it on waking.
November 1 – Jane Austen's father writes to London bookseller Thomas Cadell to ask if he is interested in seeing the manuscript of Jane's recently completed novel First Impressions ; Cadell declines.
November – Wordsworth suggests to Coleridge the theme of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner on a walk in the Quantocks.
December 24 – Walter Scott marries Charlotte Carpenter at St Mary's Church, Carlisle. The couple immediately move to a new home at 50 George Street, Edinburgh.
Hatchards bookshop is founded in London's Piccadilly by John Hatchard; it continues to trade on the same site into the 21st century.

January 10 - Maria da Felicidade do Couto Browne, early Portuguese woman poet
January 28 – Félix Tanco, Colombian-born Cuban poet, and novelist
March 3 – Emily Eden, English poet and novelist
March 13 – Charles de Rémusat, French politician and writer
March 27 – Alfred de Vigny, French poet
April 12 – Ernst August Hagen, Prussian art writer and novelist
June 14 – Jules Lefèvre-Deumier, French author and poet
July 12 – Adele Schopenhauer, German novelist and paper-cut artist
August 30 – Mary Shelley, English novelist
September 2 – William Stephenson, English Geordie printer, publisher, auctioneer, poet and songwriter
September 16 – Anthony Panizzi, Italian-born English scholar and librarian
September 28 – Sophie von Knorring, Swedish novelist
October 31 – Jacob Bailey Moore, American journalist and historical writer
November 17 – Saint-Amand, French playwright
December 13 – Heinrich Heine, German poet
December 31 – North Ludlow Beamish, Irish military writer and antiquary
Unknown date – Charlotte Barton, Australian children's author
Approximate date – Thomas Cautley Newby, English publisher