1787 in literature
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Template:Short description Template:Year nav topic5 Template:Use British English Template:More citations needed This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1787.
Events
- January 15 – Ann Ward marries William Radcliffe, gaining the surname by which she will be known as a writer of Gothic novels.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- April 16 – Royall Tyler's The Contrast becomes the first comedy written by an American citizen to be professionally produced, at the John Street Theatre (Manhattan).
- April 17 – The Edinburgh edition of Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published by William Creech. It includes a Burns portrait by Alexander Nasmyth. The poet has great social success in the city's literary circles; 16-year-old Walter Scott meets him at the house of Adam Ferguson.
- June 1 – King George III of Great Britain issues a Proclamation for the Discouragement of Vice, which can be used to prosecute obscene publications.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- June 27 – Just before midnight, Edward Gibbon completes The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the small summerhouse in his garden in Lausanne, Switzerland.
- July – Friedrich Schiller arrives in Weimar.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- November 21 – François-Joseph Talma makes his professional stage debut at the Comédie-Française as Seide, in Voltaire's Mahomet.
- December 4 – Robert Burns meets Agnes Maclehose at a party given by Miss Erskine Nimmo.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
New books
Fiction
- Elizabeth Bonhôte – Olivia, or, The Deserted Bride
- Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai – Les Amours du chevalier de Faublas
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – The Sorrows of Young Werther (revised edition)<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
- Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse – Ardinghello and die glückseligen Inseln
- Elizabeth Helme – Louisa; or the Cottage on the Moor
- Johann Karl August Musäus – Volksmärchen der Deutschen (fifth volume)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins – The Victim of Fancy
- Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken – Abraham Blankaart
Children
- François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil – Fanfan et Lolotte, ou Histoire de deux enfants abandonnés dans une île déserte (Fanfan and Lolotte, Story of Two Children Abandoned on a Desert Island)
Drama
- Pierre Beaumarchais – Tarare (opera)
- George Colman the Elder –The Village Lawyer
- George Colman the Younger – Inkle and Yarico (comic opera)
- Richard Cumberland – The Country Attorney<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Germaine de Staël – Jeanne Grey
- Thomas Holcroft – Seduction<ref>Nicoll, Allardyce. A History of English Drama 1660–1900: Volume III. Cambridge University Press, 2009. Page 271</ref>
- Elizabeth Inchbald
- All on a Summer's Day<ref>Greene, John C. Theatre in Dublin, 1745-1820: A Calendar of Performances, Volume 6. Lexington Books, 2011. Page 4495</ref>
- The Midnight Hour
- Such Things Are
- Harriet Lee – The New Peerage
- Andrew Macdonald –Vimonda
- Friedrich Schiller – Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien
- Royall Tyler – The Contrast
Poetry
Non-fiction
- Thomas Best – A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling
- Mathurin Jacques Brisson – Pesanteur Spécifique des Corps
- Ottobah Cugoano – Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- (Sir) John Fenn (ed.) – The Paston Letters (Original letters, written during the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III)
- John Hawkins – Life of Samuel Johnson
- 'Publius' (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay) – The Federalist papers (serial publication begins with Hamilton's "Federalist No. 1 – General Introduction" in The Independent Journal (New York City), October 27)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Scots Musical Museum, vol. 1
- Mary Wollstonecraft – Thoughts on the Education of Daughters<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Births
- February 2 – Charles Etienne Boniface, French music teacher, playwright and journalist (died 1853)
- February 17 – George Mogridge ("Old Humphrey"), English children's writer and poet (died 1854)
- February 23 – Emma Willard, American teacher and writer (died 1870)
- March 7 – George Bethune English, American explorer and writer (died 1828)
- April 26 – Ludwig Uhland, German poet (died 1862)<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref>
- May 29 – Konstantin Batyushkov, Russian poet, essayist and translator (died 1855)
- July 9 – Taliesin Williams, Welsh poet and author (died 1847)<ref>Template:Cite DWB</ref>
- September 13 – John Adamson, English antiquary and expert on Portuguese (died 1855)
- November 4 – Edmund Kean, English actor (died 1833)
- November 15 – Richard Henry Dana Sr., American poet, critic and lawyer (died 1879)
- November 21 – Bryan Procter (Barry Cornwall), English poet (died 1874)<ref>{{#if: |
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- December 16 – Mary Russell Mitford, English novelist (died 1855)<ref>Template:Cite DNB</ref>
Deaths
- April 1 – Floyer Sydenham, English classical scholar and translator (born 1710)
- April 2 – Francisco Javier Clavijero, Mexican-born historian (born 1731)
- May 4 – Philip Skelton, Irish clergyman and writer (born 1707)<ref>Template:Cite DNB</ref>
- June 19 – John Brown, Scottish theologian (born 1722)
- October 28 – Johann Karl August Musäus, German satirist and children's writer (born 1735)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- October 30 – Ferdinando Galiani, Italian economist (born 1728)
- November 3 – Robert Lowth, English poet, grammarian and bishop (born 1710)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- December 18 – Soame Jenyns, English poet and essayist (born 1704)