1745 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1745.

Events

September 21 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock delivers a speech on epic poetry – Abschiedsrede über die epische Poesie, kultur- und literargeschichtlich erläutert – to mark his leaving school.
October 19 – Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist and Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, dies aged 78. His body is laid out in public for the people of Dublin to pay their last respects, and he is buried, in accordance with his wishes, in his cathedral by Esther Johnson's side with his own epitaph: Ubi sæva Indignatio / Ulterius / Cor lacerare nequit ("where savage indignation can no longer lacerate the heart").
November 17 – In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg of the Moravian Church asks innkeeper Samuel Powell to begin importing and distributing books, the origins of a bookstore which continues in existence as of 2007.^[1]
The London theatres stage competing productions of Shakespeare's King John in response to the Jacobite rising begun this summer by Bonnie Prince Charlie. David Garrick's production of the original text at Drury Lane contrasts with Colley Cibber's adaptation Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John at Covent Garden. The rivalry anticipates "the Romeo and Juliet war" of five years later.

Anonymous – Der höfliche Schüler (3rd ed)
Mark Akenside – Odes
John Brown – An Essay on Satire (in honor of the death of Alexander Pope)
John Gilbert Cooper – The Power of Harmony
Philip Doddridge – The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul
Henry Fielding
- A Serious Address to the People of Great Britain (on the Jacobite rebellion)
- The True Patriot (periodical)
Samuel Johnson
- Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth
- Proposals for Printing a New Edition of the Plays of William Shakespear
Samuel Madden – Boulter's Monument
Pierre de Marivaux – La Vie de Marianne (last published section of unfinished novel)
Moses Mendes – Henry and Blanche (trans. of Alain-René Lesage)
Glocester Ridley – Jovi Eleutherio
Thomas Scott – England's Danger and Duty
Jonathan Swift – Directions to Servants (unfinished, posthumous)
William Thompson – Sickness
Enrique Flórez – Mapa de todos los sitios de batallas que tuvieron los romanos en España

Thomas Broughton – Hercules (musical)
Colley Cibber – Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John (adapted from Shakespeare)
Robert Dodsley – Rex et Pontifex
Luise Gottsched – Das Testament
Charles Jennens – Belshazzar (oratorio by Handel)
James Miller – The Picture (adapted from Molière's Sganarelle)
James Thomson – Tancred and Sigismunda

January 4 – Johann Jakob Griesbach, German Biblical commentator (died 1812)
February 2
- John Nichols, English printer (died 1826)
- Hannah More, English poet, religious writer and philanthropist (died 1833)
February 20 – Henry James Pye, English poet (died 1813)
September – Karl von Marinelli, Austrian actor and dramatist (died 1803)
September 3 – Charles Victor de Bonstetten, Swiss liberal writer (died 1832)
December 10 – Thomas Holcroft English dramatist and miscellanist (died 1809)
Unknown date – William Crowe, English poet (died 1829)
Probable year of birth – Olaudah Equiano, African writer (died 1797)

Swift's epitaph

July 11 – Pierre Desmaiseaux, Exiled French biographer (born c. 1673)
October 19 – Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist (born 1667)
December 16 – Pierre Desfontaines, French journalist and historian (born 1685)
Unknown dates
- William Broome, English poet and translator (born 1689)
- Charles Coffey, Irish dramatist and composer
- William Meston, Scottish poet (born c. 1688)
- David Wilkins, Prussian-born English orientalist (born 1685)