1689 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1689.

Events

 * April 30 – Thomas Shadwell becomes Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal in England.
 * April/May – Jonathan Swift becomes secretary to Sir William Temple.
 * May 26 – Matsuo Bashō begins the journey described in Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North).

Prose

 * Richard Cox – Hibernia Anglicana
 * George Hickes – Institutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae et Moeso-Gothicae
 * John Locke
 * Two Treatises of Government (anonymous)
 * A Letter Concerning Toleration (as by 'P.A.P.O.I.L.A.', in Latin)
 * An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (dated 1690)
 * John Selden (died 1654) – Table Talk
 * Johann Weikhard von Valvasor – The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (Die Ehre deß Hertzogthums Crain)

Drama

 * Aphra Behn – The Widow Ranter
 * James Carlile – The Fortune Hunters
 * Sor Juana – Amor es más labertino (Love the Greater Labyrinth)
 * Nathaniel Lee – The Massacre of Paris
 * William Mountfort – The Successful Strangers
 * Thomas Shadwell – Bury Fair
 * Nahum Tate – Dido and Aeneas
 * Matthew Taubman – London's Great Jubilee

Births

 * January 18 – Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, French satirist (died 1755)
 * January 21 – Daniel Henchman, Colonial American bookseller and publisher (died 1761)
 * May 26 – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English poet and letter-writer (died 1762)
 * July 9 – Alexis Piron, French epigrammatist (died 1773)
 * August 19 (bapt.) – Samuel Richardson, English novelist (died 1761)

Deaths

 * January – William Chamberlayne, English poet and playwright (born c. 1619)
 * February 21 – Isaac Vossius, Dutch-born collector of manuscripts (born 1618)
 * April 16 – Aphra Behn, English dramatist, poet and novelist (born 1640)
 * August 21 – William Cleland, Scottish soldier and poet (killed in battle, born c. 1661)
 * November 13 – Philipp von Zesen, German poet and hymn-writer (born 1619)
 * December 13 – Zbigniew Morsztyn, Polish poet (born c. 1628)
 * Unknown date – Pjetër Bogdani, Albanian-language author (born c. 1630)