1744 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1744.

Events

 * February 6 – Samuel Foote makes his debut as an actor as Othello at the Haymarket Theatre, London, England.
 * February 15 – Spranger Barry makes his debut as an actor at the Theatre Royal, Dublin.
 * April – The Female Spectator (a monthly) is founded by Eliza Haywood in England, the first periodical written for women by a woman.
 * April 14 – The Physico-Historical Society is formed in Dublin for the preservation of 'manuscripts, rare printed books, and natural curiosities relating to Ireland'.
 * May 29 – Alexander Pope is received into the Catholic Church, a day before his death.

Fiction

 * Mary Collyer – Felicia to Charlotte
 * Sarah Fielding – The Adventures of David Simple
 * Eliza Haywood – The Fortunate Foundlings
 * Edward Moore – Fables for the Female Sex
 * William Oldys – The Harleian Miscellany (introduction by Samuel Johnson)
 * Joseph Warton – The Enthusiast

Children

 * John Newbery – A Little Pretty Pocket-Book
 * Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (earliest extant English nursery-rhyme collection)

Drama

 * Robert Dodsley – A Select Collection of Old Plays
 * William Havard – Regulus
 * James Miller
 * Joseph and his Brethren (music by Handel)
 * Mahomet the Imposter (adapted from Voltaire's Mahomet; completed by John Hoadly)
 * James Ralph – The Astrologer (adapted from Thomas Tomkis's Albumazar, itself adapted from Giambattista della Porta's L'astrologo)
 * Antonio de Zamora – No hay deuda que no se pague y convidado de piedra

Poetry

 * Mark Akenside
 * The Pleasures of the Imagination
 * An Epistle to Curio
 * Jane Brereton – Poems
 * Gabriel Álvarez de Toledo (ed. Diego de Torres Villarroel) – Obras póstumas poéticas, con la Burromaquia

Non-fiction

 * John Armstrong – The Art of Preserving Health
 * George Berkeley – Siris
 * Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix – Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France (History and General Description of New France)
 * Émilie de Breteuil, marquise du Chatelet -Dissertation sur la nature et la propagation du feu
 * Colley Cibber – Another Occasional Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope
 * David Garrick – An Essay on Acting (attrib.)
 * Samuel Johnson
 * Life of Mr Richard Savage
 * An Account of the Life of John Philip Barretier
 * Francis Moore – A Voyage to Georgia
 * Alexander Pope – Essay on Man, volume 4: "Epistle: Of the Nature and State of Man, with Respect to" (4) "Happiness" (the first 2 epistles were written in 1732 and the third in 1733).
 * John Ranby – The Method of Treating Gunshot Wounds
 * Emanuel Swedenborg – The Animal Kingdom (Soul's Domain) (1744–45)
 * Jonathan Swift – Three Sermons

Births

 * January 29 – Catharina Charlotta Swedenmarck, Swedish writer (died 1813)
 * February 10 – William Mitford, English historian (died 1827)
 * April 11 (baptised) – Elizabeth Bonhôte, English novelist, essayist and poet (died 1818)
 * August 25 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German poet (died 1803)
 * December – Elsa Fougt, Swedish editor and publisher (died 1826)

Deaths

 * January 28 – Thomas Innes, Scottish historian (born 1662)
 * January 23 – Thomas Griffith, Irish actor and theatre manager (born 1680)
 * March 31 – Antiochus Kantemir, Russian diplomat and writer (born 1708)
 * April 27 – James Miller, English playwright, poet and satirist (born 1704)
 * May 30 – Alexander Pope, English poet and satirist (born 1688)
 * September 18 – Lewis Theobald, English literary historian (born 1688)