1689 in literature
# 1689 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1689.

## Events

* April 30 – Thomas Shadwell becomes Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal in England.
* April/May – Jonathan Swift becomes secretary to Sir William Temple.
* May 26 – Matsuo Bashō begins the journey described in Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North).

## New books

### Prose

* Richard Cox – Hibernia Anglicana
* George Hickes – Institutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae et Moeso-Gothicae
* John Locke
   * Two Treatises of Government (anonymous)
   * A Letter Concerning Toleration (as by 'P.A.P.O.I.L.A.', in Latin)
   * An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (dated 1690)
* John Selden (died 1654) – Table Talk
* Johann Weikhard von Valvasor – The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (Die Ehre deß Hertzogthums Crain)

### Drama

* Aphra Behn – The Widow Ranter
* James Carlile – The Fortune Hunters
* Sor Juana – Amor es más labertino (Love the Greater Labyrinth)
* Nathaniel Lee – The Massacre of Paris
* William Mountfort – The Successful Strangers
* Thomas Shadwell – Bury Fair
* Nahum Tate – Dido and Aeneas
* Matthew Taubman – London's Great Jubilee

## Births

* January 18 – Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, French satirist (died 1755)
* January 21 – Daniel Henchman, Colonial American bookseller and publisher (died 1761)
* May 26 – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English poet and letter-writer (died 1762)
* July 9 – Alexis Piron, French epigrammatist (died 1773)
* August 19 (bapt.) – Samuel Richardson, English novelist (died 1761)

## Deaths

* January – William Chamberlayne, English poet and playwright (born c. 1619)
* February 21 – Isaac Vossius, Dutch-born collector of manuscripts (born 1618)
* April 16 – Aphra Behn, English dramatist, poet and novelist (born 1640)
* August 21 – William Cleland, Scottish soldier and poet (killed in battle, born c. 1661)
* November 13 – Philipp von Zesen, German poet and hymn-writer (born 1619)
* December 13 – Zbigniew Morsztyn, Polish poet (born c. 1628)
* Unknown date – Pjetër Bogdani, Albanian-language author (born c. 1630)
