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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1739.

Events

  • January 16 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Saul is first performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, London.
  • February 9 – The Scots Magazine first appears.
  • February 17 – George Whitefield first preaches in the open air, to miners at Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, England.
  • March 16 – Henry Brooke's drama Gustavus Vasa becomes the first play banned under the Licensing Act 1737.
  • April – John Wesley first preaches in the open air, at Whitefield's invitation.
  • November – The Champion (periodical) is launched, with Henry Fielding (under the name Captain Hercules Vinegar) as editor.
  • unknown date – The first Bible in the Estonian language, Piibli Ramat, translated by Anton thor Helle, is published.

New books

Prose

  • Penelope Aubin – A Collection of Entertaining Histories and Novels
  • John Campbell – The Travels and Adventures of Edward Bevan, Esq., formerly a merchant in London
  • Elizabeth Carter
  • Examination of Mr. Pope's Essay on Man (translation of De Crousaz's Examen de l'essai de Monsieur Pope sur l'homme)
  • Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy Explain'd for the Use of Ladies (translation of Algarotti's Newtonianismo per le donne)
  • Philip Doddridge – The Family Expositor
  • Richard Glover – London
  • David Hume (anonymously) – A Treatise of Human Nature (issued late 1738 but dated this year)
  • William Law – The Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration
  • John Mottley (as Elijah Jenkins) – Joe Miller's Jests; or, the Wits Vade-Mecum
  • Robert Nugent (attributed) – An Epistle to Sir Robert Walpole
  • John Oldmixon – The History of England during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth
  • Laetitia Pilkington – The Statues
  • Samuel Richardson – Aesop's Fables
  • Elizabeth Singer Rowe – Miscellaneous Works
  • Thomas Sheridan – The Satires of Juvenal Translated
  • Joseph Trapp – The Nature, Folly, Sin, and Danger, of Being Righteous Over-much (against George Whitefield)
  • Voltaire
  • De la Gloire, ou entretien avec un Chinois
  • Conseils a M. Helvetius
  • Isaac Watts – The World to Come
  • George Whitefield – A Continuation of the Reverend Mr. Whitefield's Journal
  • Paul Whitehead – Manners

Drama

  • Daniel Bellamy – Miscellanies in Prose and Verse
  • Henry Brooke – Gustavus Vasa
  • Anthony Brown – The Fatal Retirement
  • Henry Carey – Nancy (opera)
  • Thomas Cooke – The Mournful Nuptials (not acted)
  • David Mallet – Mustapha
  • James Miller – An Hospital for Fools
  • Edward Phillips – Britons, Strike Home
  • William Shirley – The Parricide
  • James Thomson – Edward and Eleonora

Poetry

  • Moses Browne – Poems
  • Mary Collier – The Woman's Labour: an epistle to Mr Stephen Duck
  • Mikhail Lomonosov – Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks
  • Robert Nugent
  • An Ode on Mr. Pulteney
  • An Ode, to His Royal Highness on His Birthday
  • Odes and Epistles
  • Jonathan Swift – Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift
  • John Wesley – Hymns and Sacred Poems

Births

  • January – Twm o'r Nant, Welsh playwright and poet (died 1810)
  • August 31 – Johann Augustus Eberhard, German theologian and philosopher (died 1809)
  • November 20 – Jean-François de la Harpe, French critic (died 1803)
  • Unknown dates
  • Hugh Kelly, Irish-born dramatist and poet (died 1777)
  • Sophronius of Vratsa, Bulgarian writer and clergyman, early figure in the Bulgarian National Revival (died 1813)

Deaths

  • June 20 – Edmond Martène, French historian (born 1654)
  • July 25 – Johann Christoph Wolf, German Hebrew scholar and bibliographer (born 1683)
  • September 4 – George Lillo, English dramatist and actor (born 1691)
  • October 18 – António José da Silva, Brazilian dramatist (born 1705)
  • probable – Liu Zhi (劉智), Chinese Muslim scholar (born c. 1660)

References