1747 in literature

The year 1747 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• The Battle of Lauffeldt, where the French defeat the English
• Samuel Johnson begins work on his dictionary of the English language
• David Garrick becomes one of the managers of Drury Lane Theatre

New books

• William Blackstone - The Pantheon (attrib)
• Thomas Carte - A General History of England
• William Dunkin - Boetia
• Thomas Edward - A Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespear
• Henry Fielding, as "John Trott Plaid" - The Jacobite's Journal (periodical)
• Sarah Fielding - Familiar Letters Between the Principal Characters in David Simple (in defense against unauthorized continuations)
• Samuel Foote - The Roman and English Comedy Consider'd
• Philip Francis - A Poetical Translation of the Works of Horace
• Hannah Glasse - The Art of Cookery
• Madame de Graffigny - Letters from a Peruvian Woman
• Thomas Gray - Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College
• Henry Home, Lord Kames - Essays Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities
• Samuel Johnson - The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language
• Charlotte Lennox - Poems
• George Lyttelton - Monody (poetry)
• David Mallet - Amyntor and Theodora
• William Mason - Musaeus: A monody to the memory of Pope (an imitation of Milton's Lycidas)
• William Memoth, the younger - The Letters of Pliny the Consul
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu - Six Town Eclogues
• Josiah Ralph - A Miscellany
• Samuel Richardson - Clarissa vol. i - ii
• William Shakespeare - The Works of Shakespear (edited by William Warburton)
• Tobias Smollett - Reproof
• Joseph Spence - Polymetis
• Laurence Sterne - The Case of Elijah and the Widow of Zerephath
• Voltaire - Zadig
• Horace Walpole - A Letter to the Whigs
• Joseph Warton - Ranelagh House
• Thomas Warton - The Pleasures of Melancholy

New drama

• John Cunningham - Love in a Mist
• Benjamin Hoadly the younger - The Suspicious Husband
• Edward Moore - The Foundling

Births

• January 11 : François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (died 1827)
• January 15 : John Aikin, English doctor and writer (died 1822)
• December 12 : Anna Seward, English writer (died 1809)

Deaths

• January 16 : Barthold Heinrich Brockes (born 1680)
• November 17 : Alain-René Le Sage, French novelist and playwright (born 1668)
• Leonard Welsted
• Joseph Trapp