# 1724 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1724.

## Events

* January – Andrew Michael Ramsay goes to Rome to tutor the two sons of James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite pretender to the British throne.
* August – Thomas Longman establishes the Longman publishing house in London.
* November 16 – An "autobiographical" Narrative of the life of notorious criminal Jack Sheppard, said to be by Daniel Defoe, goes on sale at Sheppard's execution at Tyburn.

## New books
### Prose

* Anonymous (attributed to Daniel Defoe) – A Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes, &c. of John Sheppard
* Gilbert Burnet (died 1715) – Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time, Vol. I
* Samuel Clarke – Sermons of Samuel Clarke
* Anthony Collins – Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion with An Apology for Free Debate and Liberty of Writing
* Mary Davys – The Reform'd Coquet (novella)
* Daniel Defoe
** Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress
** A New Voyage Round the World
** A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain
* John Dennis – Vice and Luxury Publick Mischiefs (on Mandeville)
* Richard Fiddes
** A General Treatise of Morality (on Mandeville)
** The Life of Cardinal Wolsey
* Eliza Haywood
** La Belle Assemblé
** The Fatal Secret (fiction)
** Lasselia
** The Masqueraders
* Thomas Hearne, ed. – Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle
* Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (died 1674) – An Appendix to the History of the Grand Rebellion
* Captain Charles Johnson (attributed to Daniel Defoe or Nathaniel Mist) – A General History of the Pyrates
* William Law – Remarks Upon a Late Book (against Mandeville)
* John Oldmixon – The Critical History of England, Ecclesiastical and Civil
* Paul de Rapin – L'Histoire d'Angleterre
* Jonathan Swift
** A Letter to the Shop-keepers... of Ireland (as M. B. Drapier)
** A Letter to Mr. Harding the Printer (as Drapier)
** Some Observations Upon a Paper Relating to Wood's Half-pence (as Drapier)
** A Letter to the Whole People of Ireland (Drapier)
** A Letter to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Molesworth (last of the Drapier letters)
** Seasonable Advice
* Isaac Watts – Logic, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard Against Error in the Affairs of Religion and Human Life, as well as in the Sciences

### Drama

* Colley Cibber – Caesar in Egypt
* John Gay – The Captives
* Ludvig Holberg – Henrich og Pernille (Henrik and Pernille)
* Robert Hurst – The Roman Maid
* George Jeffreys – Edwin
* Pierre de Marivaux – La Fausse Suivante
* William Phillips – Belisarius
* John Rich – The Necromancer; or, History of Dr. Faustus

### Poetry

* Matthew Concanen – Miscellaneous Poems
* Eliza Haywood – Poems on Several Occasions
* Allan Ramsay
** The Ever Green: Being a collection of Scots Poems
** Health
* Elizabeth Tollet – Poems on Several Occasions
* Voltaire – La Henriade
* Leonard Welsted – Epistles, Odes, &c.
* See also 1724 in poetry

## Births

* January 12 – Frances Brooke, English novelist and dramatist (died 1789)
* March 20 – Duncan Ban MacIntyre, Scottish Gaelic poet (died 1812)
* April 22 – Immanuel Kant German philosopher (died 1804)
* June 4 – William Gilpin, English writer, painter and originator of "picturesque" (died 1804)
* July 2 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (died 1803)
* July 26 – Ji Yun (纪昀), Chinese poet and scholar (died 1805)
* July 31 – Noël François de Wailly, French grammarian and lexicographer (died 1801)
* October 31 – Christopher Anstey, English writer and poet (died 1805)
* December 13 – Franz Aepinus, German natural philosopher (died 1802)
* Unknown dates
** Samuel Derrick, Irish writer (died 1769)
** Frances Sheridan (Frances Chamberlaine), Irish novelist and dramatist (died 1766)

## Deaths

* January 1 – Charles Gildon, English critic and dramatist (born c. 1665)
* January 15 – George Wheler, English travel writer (born 1651)
* February 5 – Mary Cowper, English diarist (born 1685)
* February 12 – Elkanah Settle, English poet and dramatist (born 1648)
* March 19 – Johann Christian Thomae, German historian and biographer (born 1668)
* July 11 – Delarivier Manley, writer, playwright and pamphleteer (born c. 1663)
* August 15 – Manko, Japanese poet (year of birth not known)
* October 6 – Charles Rivière Dufresny, French dramatist (born 1648)
* October 29 – William Wollaston, English philosophical writer (born 1659)
* November 29 – Laurence Braddon, English writer and politician (year of birth not known)
* November – Liam an Dúna Mac Cairteáin, Irish poet and soldier (b. 1668)
* probable – Proinsias Ó Doibhlin, Irish poet and priest (year of birth not known)