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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1689.

Events

  • April 30 – Thomas Shadwell becomes Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal in England.
  • April/May – Jonathan Swift becomes secretary to Sir William Temple.
  • May 26 – Matsuo Bashō begins the journey described in Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North).

New books

Prose

  • Richard Cox – '
  • George Hickes – '
  • John Locke
  • Two Treatises of Government (anonymous)
  • A Letter Concerning Toleration (as by 'P.A.P.O.I.L.A.', in Latin)
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (dated 1690)
  • John Selden (died 1654) – Table Talk
  • Johann Weikhard von Valvasor – The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (Die Ehre deß Hertzogthums Crain)

Drama

  • Aphra Behn – The Widow Ranter
  • James Carlile – The Fortune Hunters
  • Sor Juana – (Love the Greater Labyrinth)
  • Nathaniel Lee – The Massacre of Paris
  • William Mountfort – The Successful Strangers
  • Thomas Shadwell – Bury Fair
  • Nahum Tate – Dido and Aeneas
  • Matthew Taubman – London's Great Jubilee

Births

  • January 18 – Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, French satirist (died 1755)
  • January 21 – Daniel Henchman, Colonial American bookseller and publisher (died 1761)
  • May 26 – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English poet and letter-writer (died 1762)
  • July 9 – Alexis Piron, French epigrammatist (died 1773)
  • August 19 (bapt.) – Samuel Richardson, English novelist (died 1761)

Deaths

  • January – William Chamberlayne, English poet and playwright (born c. 1619)
  • February 21 – Isaac Vossius, Dutch-born collector of manuscripts (born 1618)
  • April 16 – Aphra Behn, English dramatist, poet and novelist (born 1640)
  • August 21 – William Cleland, Scottish soldier and poet (killed in battle, born c. 1661)
  • November 13 – Philipp von Zesen, German poet and hymn-writer (born 1619)
  • December 13 – Zbigniew Morsztyn, Polish poet (born c. 1628)
  • Unknown date – Pjetër Bogdani, Albanian-language author (born c. 1630)

References