1759 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1759. Events By January 15 – Voltaire's satirical novella Candide, ou l'Optimisme is published simultaneously in five countries. January 15 – The British Museum opens in London. March 5 – Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie is proscribed by the Vatican and (on March 8) temporarily suppressed by the French government. The ban is lifted in September to allow publication of a revised version. July 27 – The earliest known professional performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet in North America (in Garrick's version) is given by the American Company in Philadelphia, with Lewis Hallam Jr. as Hamlet. August 12 – In the Seven Years' War Battle of Kunersdorf, the German poet Major Ewald Christian von Kleist is fatally injured. December – Laurence Sterne has the first two volumes of his comic metafictional novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman printed in York, in a shop owned by Ann Ward. December 22 – The writer and critic William Warburton is nominated Anglican Bishop of Gloucester. unknown dates Rev. Hugh Blair begins to teach a course on the principles of literary composition at the University of Edinburgh, the first held in the field of English literature. Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch becomes a professor of rhetoric and poetry at the University of Jena. New books Fiction Anonymous – The History of Some of the Penitents in the Magdalen-House (dated 1760) Sarah Fielding – The History of the Countess of Dellwyn Samuel Johnson – The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (on Wikisource). Gotthold Lessing – Fables Madame Riccoboni – Lettres de Milady Juliette Catesby William Rider – Candidus (translation of Candide) Laurence Sterne – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, vols 1–2 Voltaire – Candide