# 1772 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1772.

## Events

* March – Gottfried August Bürger obtains a magistracy and is reconciled with his family.
* May 7 – The Stadsschouwburg theatre in Amsterdam is destroyed by fire.
* June
** At Marseilles, the Marquis de Sade embarks on an orgy, as a result of which he is convicted in absentia of sodomy and poisoning and receives a death sentence; he escapes.
** Charles Burney tours Europe, researching for his History of Music.
* September 12 – The Göttinger Hainbund of German poets is formed at a midnight ritual in an oaken grove.
* November 10 – The wife of poet Pedro Correia Garção obtains an order for his release from prison, the very day of his death.
* November 28 – Publication of the Bible in the Manx language is completed.
* unknown dates
** Thomas Paine produces his first published work, a political article entitled Case of the Officers of Excise.
** Hannah More arrives in London.
** An Armenian language press is set up in Chennai, India.

## New books
### Fiction

* Elizabeth Bonhôte – The Rambles of Mr Frankly, Published by his Sister
* Jacques Cazotte – Le Diable Amoureux
* Robert Fergusson – The Daft Days
* Sarah Scott – The Test of Filial Duty
* David Williams – Letter to David Garrick

### Drama

* György Bessenyei – Ágis tragédiája
* Richard Cumberland – The Fashionable Lover
* Samuel Foote – The Nabob
* Vicente Garcia de la Huerta – Raquel
* David Garrick – The Irish Widow
* Gotthold Lessing – Emilia Galotti
* Louis-Sébastien Mercier
** Le faux ami (The False Friend)
** Jean Hennuyer, évêque de Lisieux (written)
* Arthur Murphy – The Grecian Daughter

### Poetry

* Mark Akenside – Poems
* Thomas Chatterton – The Execution of Sir Charles Bawdin
* William Jones – Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages
* William Kenrick – Love in the Suds
* William Mason – The English Garden
* Christopher Smart – Hymns, for the Amusement of Children
* George Alexander Stevens – Songs

### Non-fiction

* Alphabetum grandonico-malabaricum sive samscrudonicum (with a preface by Giovanni Cristofano Amaduzzi)
* The Encyclopédie in 28 volumes by Diderot, d'Alembert, and many others
* Moses Browne – The Excellency of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ
* José Cadalso – Los eruditos a la violeta
* William Chambers – A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening
* Junius (possibly Philip Francis) – Junius: Stat Nominis Umbra
* Francis Grose – The Antiquities of England and Wales
* Johann Gottfried Herder – Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache (Treatise on the Origin of Language)
* Richard Hurd – An Introduction to the Study of Prophecies...
* Carsten Niebuhr – Beschreibung von Arabien
* Joseph Priestley – The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light, and Colours
* Francis Stoughton Sullivan (died 1766) – An Historical Treatise on the Feudal Law, and the Constitution and Laws of England
* Catherine Talbot – Essays on Various Subjects
* Wilhelm Abraham Teller – Wörterbuch des Neuen Testamentes zur Erklärung der christlichen Lehre (Dictionary of the New Testament for the Explanation of Christian Doctrine)

## Births

* January 15 – James Ballantyne, Scottish editor and publisher (died 1833)
* March 10 – Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, German poet, literary critic, philosopher and philologist (died 1829)
* April 11 – Manuel José Quintana, Spanish poet (died 1857)
* May 2 – Novalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg), German poet and philosopher (died 1801)
* August 29 – Sarah Burney, English novelist (died 1844)
* September 27 – Sándor Kisfaludy, Hungarian poet (died 1844)
* October 21 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet (died 1834)
* November 17 – Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers, French dramatist (died 1827)
* November 28 – Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann, German classical commentator and philologist (died 1848)
* December 6
** John Carr, English travel writer and lawyer (died 1832)
** Henry Cary, Gibraltar-born Irish author, editor and translator (died 1844)
* unknown date – Maria Riddell, West Indies-born poet, naturalist and travel writer resident in Scotland (died 1808)
* probable – Charlotte Dacre, English Gothic novelist (died 1825)

## Deaths

* March 26 – Charles Pinot Duclos, French novelist and encyclopedist (born 1704)
* March 29 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish philosopher (born 1688)
* May 22 – Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (born 1687)
* June – Thomas Whately, English politician and writer (born 1726)
* June 18 – Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German philosopher (born 1706)
* October 7 – John Woolman, American abolitionist author (smallpox, born 1720)
* October 10 – William Wilkie, Scottish poet (ague, born 1721)
* November 10 – Pedro Correia Garção, Portuguese poet (born 1724)
* unknown dates
** Thomas Hawkins, English editor and cleric (born 1729)
** Margareta Momma, Swedish editor and writer (born 1702)