1790 in literature

• February – Xavier de Maistre begins writing Voyage autour de ma chambre (Voyage Around my Room, published 1794) while under arrest in Turin in the Kingdom of Sardinia, as the result of a duel. • May – Following the death of Thomas Warton, William Hayley refuses an offer to succeed him as Poet Laureate of Great Britain. Retired MP Henry James Pye is appointed in his place. • May 31 – United States President George Washington approves the Copyright Act of 1790. • June 1 – The Royal Literary Fund is founded in Britain by David Williams. • June 9 – John Barrie's Philadelphia Spelling Book Arranged Upon a Plan Entirely New becomes the first American book copyrighted. • unknown date – William Lane establishes the Minerva Press in London, specializing in Gothic fiction. ==New books==

Fiction • Mary Pilkington – Delia • Ann Radcliffe – A Sicilian Romance • Helen Maria Williams – Julia Drama • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Torquato Tasso (completed) • William Hayley – Eudora • Thomas Holcroft – The German Hotel • Edmond Malone (editor) – The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare • Leandro Fernández de Moratín – El viejo y la niña (The Old Man and the Young Girl, published) • Mariana Starke – The Widow of Malabar • August von Kotzebue • Die Indianer in England (The Indians in England) • Menschenhass und Reue (Misanthropy and Repentance) • (as Knigge) – Doktor Bahrdt mit der eisernen Stirn (Doctor Bahrdt with the Iron Brow) Poetry • William Blake – The Marriage of Heaven and Hell • Robert Burns – "Tam o' Shanter" Non-fiction • Samuel Ayscough – An Index to the Remarkable Passages and Words Made Use of by Shakespeare, first Shakespeare concordance published • James Bruce – Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile • Edmund Burke – Reflections on the Revolution in France • Hannah More – An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World • Jean Paul – Leben des vergnügten Schulmeisterlein Maria Wutz (Life of the Devoted School Mistress MW) • Alexander Radishchev – Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow • Louis Claude de Saint-Martin – ''L'Homme de désir'' • Mary Wollstonecraft – A Vindication of the Rights of Men ==Births==

• January 1 – James Wills, Irish poet (died 1868) • January 10 – Anders Abraham Grafström, Swedish historian, priest and poet (died 1870) • January 29 – George Métivier, Guernsey poet writing in Guernésiais (died 1881) • March 3 – John Austin, English legal philosopher (died 1859) • March 10 – Jacques Arago, French traveller and writer (died 1855) • March 18 – Marquis de Custine, French aristocrat and travel writer (died 1857) • June 9 – Abel-François Villemain, French politician and writer (died 1870) • June 24 – Helena Ekblom, Swedish writer and preacher (died 1859) • July 8 – Fitz-Greene Halleck, American poet (died 1867) • August 8 – Ferenc Kölcsey, Hungarian poet and critic (died 1838) • October 1 – Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, English novelist (died 1846) • October 21 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet (died 1869) • December 8 – Richard Carlile, English advocate of suffrage and press freedom (died 1843) • December 25 – Anna Eliza Bray, English novelist and travel writer (died 1883) • Unknown date — Mary Diana Dods (also as David Lyndsay and Walter Sholto Douglas), Scottish writer (died 1830 in literature) ==Deaths==

• February 19 – Thomas de Mahy, marquis de Favras, man of letters (born 1744; executed) • March 20 – Thomas Richards of Coychurch, cleric and lexicographer (born c.1710) • April 3 – Ephraim Kuh, German poet, 58/9 • April 29 – Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French art critic (born 1715) • May 2 – Martin Madan, English writer and cleric (born 1726) • May 6 – Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, French military writer (born 1743) • May 21 – Thomas Warton, English poet and literary historian (born 1798) • July 7 – François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher (born 1721) • July 17 – Adam Smith, Scottish philosopher and political economist (born 1723) • July 25 – William Livingston, American political writer and politician (born 1723) • unknown date – Maria Vittoria Ottoboni, Italian stage actress, writer and salonist (b. 1721) • probable – Marc-Antoine Eidous, French encyclopedist (born c. 1724) ==References==