1806 in literature

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

Events[edit]

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.^[1]
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").^[2]
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.

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

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)^[4]
March 6 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (died 1861)^[5]
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)^[6]
unknown date – Anne Clarke, Australian theatre manager

February 2 – Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, French writer (born 1734)^[7]
February 12 – Gabriel-Henri Gaillard, French historian (born 1726)
February 19 – Elizabeth Carter, English poet, writer and translator (born 1717)^[8]
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)

^ Clifford, Brendan (1993). "Introduction". Political and Historical Writings on Irish and British Affairs by Thomas Moore. Belfast: Athol Books. p. 14.
^ Michael Felix Suarez; H. R. Woudhuysen (8 February 2010). The Oxford companion to the book. Oxford University Press. p. 964. ISBN 978-0-19-860653-6.
^ "children's literature - Historical sketches of the major literatures". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
^ Burtner, Amy L. "Emma Catherine Embury (1806–1863)" in Writers of the American Renaissance: An A-to-Z Guide, Denise D. Knight, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003: 109. ISBN 0-313-32140-X
^ Sampson, Fiona (2021). Two Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Profile Books, p 33
^ Megan Marshall, The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005)
^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Restif, Nicolas Edme". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 200.
^ "Elizabeth Carter - British author". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 January 2017.