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| List of years in literature (table) |
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| … 1711 . 1712 . 1713 . 1714 . 1715 . 1716 . 1717 … 1718 1719 1720 -1721- 1722 1723 1724 … 1725 . 1726 . 1727 . 1728 . 1729 . 1730 . 1731 … In poetry: 1718 1719 1720 -1721- 1722 1723 1724 |
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| … 1718 . 1719 . 1720 - 1721 - 1722 . 1723 . 1724 … … 1690s . 1700s . 1710s -1720s- 1730s . 1740s . 1750s … … 17th century . 18th century . 19th century … |
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The year 1721 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Contents |
Events
- Around this time ("first" is debated), inoculation for smallpox began in England.
- John Cleland becomes a pupil at Westminster School and is soon expelled for an unknown offense.
- Francis Atterbury is arrested for plotting against the Hanoverian monarchy and being a "Jacobite".
- The South Sea Bubble burst, with many losses of fortune, including John Gay, and there are increasing suspicions of complicity by Robert Walpole's government.
New books
- Joseph Addison - The Works of Joseph Addison
- Penelope Aubin - The Strange Adventures of the Count de Vinevil and His Family
- - The Life of Madam de Beaumont
- Nathan Bailey - An Universal Etymological Dictionary
- George Berkeley - An Essay Towards Preventing the Ruine of Great Britain
- Richard Blackmore - A New Version of the Psalms of David
- Shaftesbury - Letters from the Late Earl of Shaftesbury, to Robert Molesworth
- Charles Gildon - The Laws of Poetry
- Eliza Haywood - Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier (transl.)
- Montesquieu - Lettres persanes (Persian Letters)
- Alexander Pennecuik - An Ancient Prophecy Concerning Stock-Jobbing, and the Conduct of the Directors of the South-Sea-Company
- Matthew Prior - Colin's Mistakes
- John Strype - Ecclesiastical Memorials
- Emanuel Swedenborg - Prodromus principiorum rerum naturalium
- Jonathan Swift - The Bubble
- - A Letter to a Young Gentlleman, Lately Enter'd into Holy Orders
- Thomas Tickell - Kensington Garden
- Robert Wodrow - The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland
New drama
- Colley Cibber - The Refusal
- Eliza Haywood - The Fair Captive
- John Mottley - Antiochus
- Thomas Odell - The Chimera
- Edward Young - The Revenge
Births
- March 19 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish physician and author (died 1771)
- November 9 - Mark Akenside, poet (died 1770)
- December 27 - François Hemsterhuis, moral philosopher (died 1790)
- date unknown
- William Collins, poet (died 1759)
- Johann Silberschlag, theologian (died 1791)
Deaths
- January 3 - Juan Núñez de la Peña, historian (born 1641)
- August 13 - Jacques Lelong, French bibliographer (born 1665)
- September 18 - Matthew Prior, British poet and diplomat (born 1664)
- December 12 - Alexander Selkirk, the model for Robinson Crusoe (born 1676)
- date unknown
- Charlwood Lawton, Jacobite author
- Antoine Watteau, French painter
