1809 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1809 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Events
- Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
founds The Friend (periodical, through 1810). - On February 24, the Theatre Royal, Drury LaneTheatre Royal, Drury LaneThe Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
is destroyed by fire. - On September 18, the new Royal Opera HouseRoyal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
in Covent GardenCovent GardenCovent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
opens, rebuilt after the fire of the previous year.
New books
- Thomas Campbell - Gertrude of WyomingGertrude of WyomingGertrude of Wyoming; A Pennsylvanian Tale is a romantic epic in Spenserian stanza composed by Scottish poet Thomas Campbell . The poem was well received, but not a financial success for its author....
- François-René de ChateaubriandFrançois-René de ChateaubriandFrançois-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian. He is considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature.-Early life and exile:...
- The Martyrs - Catherine CuthbertsonCatherine CuthbertsonCatherine Cuthbertson was an English-language novelist in the early 19th-century. Among her works were Romance of the Pyrenees , Forest of Montalbano , and The Hut and the Castle: a Romance ....
- Romance of the Pyrenees - Maria EdgeworthMaria EdgeworthMaria Edgeworth was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe...
- Ennui and Manoeuvering - Sophia Frances - Angelo Guicciardini
- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
- Elective AffinitiesElective AffinitiesElective Affinities , also translated under the title Kindred by Choice, is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809. The title is taken from a scientific term once used to describe the tendency of chemical species to combine with certain substances or species in preference... - Stéphanie Félicité, Comtesse de GenlisStéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Albin, comtesse de GenlisMadame de Genlis, full name Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Aubin, comtesse de Genlis, or Madame Brûlart, was a French writer, harpist and educator.-Biography:...
- Alphonso - Anne GrantAnne GrantAnne Grant was a Scottish poet and author.She was born in Glasgow, and in 1779 married the Rev. James Grant, minister of Laggan, Invernessshire. She published in 1802 a volume of poems. She also wrote Letters from the Mountains, and Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlands...
- Memoirs of an American Lady - Sarah Green - Tales of the Manor
- J. P. Hunt - The Iron Mask
- Washington IrvingWashington IrvingWashington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
- A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker - Ivan Kriloff - Fables
- Catherine Manners - The Lords of Erith
- Mary MeekeMary MeekeMary Meeke was a prolific author of around 30 novels published by the Minerva Press during the early 19th century, and is believed to have died in October 1816....
- Laughton Priory - Hannah MoreHannah MoreHannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...
- Coelebs in Search of a WifeCoelebs in Search of a WifeCoelebs in Search of a Wife is a novel by the British Christian moralist Hannah More. It was followed by Coelebs Married in 1814.... - Mary PilkingtonMary PilkingtonMary Pilkington was an English novelist and poet.She was born in Cambridge, England. When her father died, she was aged fifteen, and went to live with her grandfather. The man who had taken over her father's medical practice became Mary's husband in 1786. While he was away working as a naval...
- The Mysterious Orphan - Anna Maria PorterAnna Maria PorterAnna Maria Porter , poet, novelist and sister of Jane Porter, was born in the Bailey in Durham, the posthumous child of William Porter , who had served as an army surgeon for 23 years. He is buried in St Oswald's church, Durham....
- Don Sebastian - Richard Sicklemore - Osrick
- Louisa StanhopeLouisa StanhopeLouisa Sidney Stanhope was an English novelist of the early 19th century. She wrote mainly historical and Gothic romances.-Novels:*Montbrasil Abbey: or, Maternal Trials...
- The Age We Live In - Elizabeth ThomasElizabeth ThomasElizabeth Thomas may refer to:*Elizabeth Thomas , British poet*Elizabeth Thomas , British novelist and poet*Elizabeth Thomas , American Egyptologist*Betty Thomas, American actress...
- Monte Video - Sarah Wilkinson - The Mysterious Novice
- Henrietta Maria Young - The Novitiate de Roussillon
Non-fiction
- Lord Byron - English Bards and Scotch ReviewersEnglish Bards and Scotch ReviewersEnglish Bards and Scotch Reviewers is a satirical poem written by Lord Byron. It was first published, anonymously, in March 1809; the opening parodies the first satire of Juvenal. A second, expanded edition followed later in 1809, with Byron identified as the author.The text is referred to in Tom...
- John RobertonJohn Roberton (1776)John Roberton was a Scottish physician and social reformer. A radical and fringe figure in the medical profession, he is best remembered for advocating the founding of a medical police to promote health and social welfare and for authoring a book that became the centre of a notorious legal...
- A Treatise on Medical Police, and on Diet, Regimen, &c
Births
- January 19 - Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, writer (d. 1849) - March 6 - David BatesDavid Bates (poet)David Bates was an American poet.He was born in Indian Hill, Ohio and educated in Buffalo before working in first Indianapolis then Philadelphia. In 1849, he published a volume of poetry, Eolian....
, American poet (d. 1870) - March 31 - Nikolai GogolNikolai GogolNikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
, writer (d. 1852) - March 31 - Edward FitzgeraldEdward FitzGerald (poet)Edward FitzGerald was an English writer, best known as the poet of the first and most famous English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The spelling of his name as both FitzGerald and Fitzgerald is seen...
, translator of Omar KhayyámOmar KhayyámOmar Khayyám was aPersian polymath: philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, mineralogy, music, climatology and theology....
(d. 1883) - June 13 - Heinrich HoffmannHeinrich Hoffmann (author)Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist, who also wrote some short works including Der Struwwelpeter, an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.- Early life and education:...
, German writer, author of StruwwelpeterStruwwelpeterDer Struwwelpeter is a popular German children's book by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehavior in an exaggerated way. The title of the first story provides the...
(d. 1894) - August 6 - Alfred TennysonAlfred Tennyson, 1st Baron TennysonAlfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
, poet (d. 1892) - August 29 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat...
, poet (d. 1894)
Deaths
- March 11 - Hannah CowleyHannah CowleyHannah Cowley was an English dramatist and poet. Although Cowley’s plays and poetry did not enjoy wide popularity after the nineteenth century, critic Melinda Finberg rates Cowley as “one of the foremost playwrights of the late eighteenth century” whose “skill in writing fluid, sparkling dialogue...
, dramatist and poet - March 25 - Anna SewardAnna SewardAnna Seward was an English Romantic poet, often called the Swan of Lichfield.-Life:Seward was the elder daughter of Thomas Seward , prebendary of Lichfield and Salisbury, and author...
, the "Swan of Lichfield" - June 8 - Thomas PaineThomas PaineThomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
, writer