1806 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1806.

Events

 * July – Following publication of Irish-born poet Thomas Moore's Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems, Francis Jeffrey denounces it in this month's Edinburgh Review as "licentious". Moore challenges Jeffrey to a duel in London but their confrontation is interrupted by officials and they become friends.
 * November 23 – Sir Roger Newdigate dies, leaving a bequest that funds the foundation of the Newdigate Prize for English Poetry at the University of Oxford. The first winner is John Wilson ("Christopher North").
 * December 29 – Thomas Dibdin's pantomime Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg opens at the Covent Garden Theatre in London starring Joseph Grimaldi. It runs for 111 performances.
 * unknown dates
 * Noah Webster publishes his first English dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, recording distinct American spellings.
 * Johann Wolfgang von Goethe completes a preliminary version of his Faust.
 * Nólsoyar Páll completes his anti-Danish Fuglakvæði (Ballad of the Birds), one of the first significant works in the Faroese language.

Fiction

 * Harriet Butler – Vensenshon
 * Sophie Ristaud Cottin – Elisabeth, ou les Exilés de Sibérie
 * Catherine Cuthbertson – Santo Sebastiano
 * Charlotte Dacre – Zofloya
 * Maria Edgeworth – Leonora
 * Rachel Hunter – Lady Maclairn, the Victim of Villany
 * Francis Lathom – The Mysterious Freebooter
 * Matthew Gregory Lewis – Feudal Tyrants
 * Sydney Owenson – The Wild Irish Girl
 * Louisa Stanhope – Montbrasil Abbey
 * Thomas Skinner Surr – Winter in London

Children and young people

 * Elizabeth Dawbarn – Young Person's Assistant in Reading the Old Testament
 * Ann Taylor and Jane Taylor – Rhymes for the Nursery

Drama

 * John Till Allingham – The Romantic Lover
 * Richard Cumberland – A Hint to Husbands
 * Thomas Dibdin – Five Miles Off
 * Thomas Holcroft – The Vindictive Man
 * Heinrich von Kleist – The Broken Jug (Der zerbrochne Krug, written)
 * George Manners – Edgar
 * Leandro Fernández de Moratín – The Maidens' Consent (El sí de las niñas, first performed)

Non-fiction

 * J. C. Adelung – Mithridates, a History of Language and Dialects
 * Johann Gottlieb Fichte – Bericht über die Wissenschaftslehre
 * James Madison – An Examination of the British Doctrine which Subjects to Capture a Neutral Trade not Open in Time of Peace
 * Maria Rundell (as A Lady) – A New System of Domestic Cookery
 * Jane West – Letters to a Young Lady

Births

 * January 17 – William Saunders, Welsh poet and printer (died 1851)
 * February 1 – Jane Williams (Ysgafell), Welsh poet, folklorist and historian (died 1885)
 * February 25 – Emma Catherine Embury, American author and poet (died 1863)
 * March 6 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (died 1861)
 * March 26 – James Hogg, Scottish editor and publisher (died 1888)
 * April 17 – William Gilmore Simms, American author (died 1870)
 * May 20 – John Stuart Mill, English political economist and philosopher (died 1873)
 * July 20 – John Sterling, Scottish essayist and poet (died 1844)
 * July 22 – Johann Kaspar Zeuss, German historian and philologist (died 1856)
 * August 31 – Charles Lever, Irish novelist (died 1872)
 * November 11 – Georgiana Chatterton, English novelist and travel writer (died 1876)
 * November 16 – Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, American education reformer and author (died 1887)
 * unknown date – Anne Clarke, Australian theatre manager

Deaths

 * February 2 – Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, French writer (born 1734)
 * February 12 – Gabriel-Henri Gaillard, French historian (born 1726)
 * February 19 – Elizabeth Carter, English poet, writer and translator (born 1717)
 * February 24 – Collin d'Harleville, French dramatist (born 1755)
 * March 3 – Heinrich Christian Boie, German poet and editor (born 1744)
 * April 4 – Carlo Gozzi, Venetian dramatist (born 1720)
 * May 6 – Ann Yearsley, English poet, writer and library proprietor (died 1753)
 * October 19 – Henry Kirke White, English poet (born 1785)
 * October 28 – Charlotte Turner Smith, English poet and novelist (born 1749)
 * November 23 – Sir Roger Newdigate, English antiquary, politician and literary patron (born 1719)
 * December 26 – Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, French dramatist (born 1717)