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.

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)