# 1806 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1806.

## Events

* July – Following publication of Irish-born poet Thomas Moore's Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems, Francis Jeffrey denounces it in this month's Edinburgh Review as "licentious". Moore challenges Jeffrey to a duel in London but their confrontation is interrupted by officials and they become friends.
* November 23 – Sir Roger Newdigate dies, leaving a bequest that funds the foundation of the Newdigate Prize for English Poetry at the University of Oxford. The first winner is John Wilson ("Christopher North").
* December 29 – Thomas Dibdin's pantomime Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg opens at the Covent Garden Theatre in London starring Joseph Grimaldi. It runs for 111 performances.
* unknown dates
** Noah Webster publishes his first English dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, recording distinct American spellings.
** Johann Wolfgang von Goethe completes a preliminary version of his Faust.
** Nólsoyar Páll completes his anti-Danish Fuglakvæði (Ballad of the Birds), one of the first significant works in the Faroese language.

## New books
### Fiction

* Harriet Butler – Vensenshon
* Sophie Ristaud Cottin – Elisabeth, ou les Exilés de Sibérie
* Catherine Cuthbertson – Santo Sebastiano
* Charlotte Dacre – Zofloya
* Maria Edgeworth – Leonora
* Rachel Hunter – Lady Maclairn, the Victim of Villany
* Francis Lathom – The Mysterious Freebooter
* Matthew Gregory Lewis – Feudal Tyrants
* Sydney Owenson – The Wild Irish Girl
* Louisa Stanhope – Montbrasil Abbey
* Thomas Skinner Surr – Winter in London

### Children and young people

* Elizabeth Dawbarn – Young Person's Assistant in Reading the Old Testament
* Ann Taylor and Jane Taylor – Rhymes for the Nursery

### Drama

* John Till Allingham – The Romantic Lover
* Richard Cumberland – A Hint to Husbands
* Thomas Dibdin – Five Miles Off
* Thomas Holcroft – The Vindictive Man
* Heinrich von Kleist – The Broken Jug (Der zerbrochne Krug, written)
* George Manners – Edgar
* Leandro Fernández de Moratín – The Maidens' Consent (El sí de las niñas, first performed)

### Non-fiction

* J. C. Adelung – Mithridates, a History of Language and Dialects
* Johann Gottlieb Fichte – Bericht über die Wissenschaftslehre
* James Madison – An Examination of the British Doctrine which Subjects to Capture a Neutral Trade not Open in Time of Peace
* Maria Rundell (as A Lady) – A New System of Domestic Cookery
* Jane West – Letters to a Young Lady

## Births

* January 17 – William Saunders, Welsh poet and printer (died 1851)
* February 1 – Jane Williams (Ysgafell), Welsh poet, folklorist and historian (died 1885)
* February 25 – Emma Catherine Embury, American author and poet (died 1863)
* March 6 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (died 1861)
* March 26 – James Hogg, Scottish editor and publisher (died 1888)
* April 17 – William Gilmore Simms, American author (died 1870)
* May 20 – John Stuart Mill, English political economist and philosopher (died 1873)
* July 20 – John Sterling, Scottish essayist and poet (died 1844)
* July 22 – Johann Kaspar Zeuss, German historian and philologist (died 1856)
* August 31 – Charles Lever, Irish novelist (died 1872)
* November 11 – Georgiana Chatterton, English novelist and travel writer (died 1876)
* November 16 – Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, American education reformer and author (died 1887)
* unknown date – Anne Clarke, Australian theatre manager

## Deaths

* February 2 – Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, French writer (born 1734)
* February 12 – Gabriel-Henri Gaillard, French historian (born 1726)
* February 19 – Elizabeth Carter, English poet, writer and translator (born 1717)
* February 24 – Collin d'Harleville, French dramatist (born 1755)
* March 3 – Heinrich Christian Boie, German poet and editor (born 1744)
* April 4 – Carlo Gozzi, Venetian dramatist (born 1720)
* May 6 – Ann Yearsley, English poet, writer and library proprietor (died 1753)
* October 19 – Henry Kirke White, English poet (born 1785)
* October 28 – Charlotte Turner Smith, English poet and novelist (born 1749)
* November 23 – Sir Roger Newdigate, English antiquary, politician and literary patron (born 1719)
* December 26 – Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, French dramatist (born 1717)