1754 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1754. Events January 28 – Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity (from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip). March 2 – Riot at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin. Thomas Sheridan, the manager, resigns, and leaves Ireland on September 15 for London where his wife Frances Sheridan meets Samuel Richardson. Élie Catherine Fréron's journal Lettres sur quelques écrits de ce temps is replaced by his Année littéraire. New books Fiction Jane Collier and Sarah Fielding – The Cry: A New Dramatic Fable Mary Davys – The Reformed Coquet; or Memoirs of Amoranda Henry Fielding – The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (enlarged and expanded from the Miscellanies of 1743) Solomon Gessner – Daphnis Sarah Scott: Agreeable Ugliness A Journey Through Every Stage of Life John Shebbeare – The Marriage Act