1709 in literature

• February 1 or 2 – The marooned Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, is rescued from the Juan Fernández Islands and begins his return to civilization.
• April 12 – The magazine The Tatler is founded in London by Richard Steele, writing as Isaac Bickerstaff. On July 8 "Mrs. (Phoebe) Crackenthorpe" (perhaps Delarivier Manley[1]) begins publication of The Female Tatler.
• April 26 – An act of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland provides for public libraries in presbyteries.[2]
• May–October 20 – Mrs. Delarivier Manley's roman à clef The New Atalantis (Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of both Sexes, From The New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean) appears in London (in two volumes, anonymously), purporting to be translated from Italian. Its satire of the Whigs is so scurrilous that the author is detained for questioning from October 29 to November 5.[1] It goes through seven editions.
• May 2 – Alexander Pope's career as a poet opens with the publication of the anthology Poetical Miscellanies, The Sixth Part, edited by John Dryden and published by Jacob Tonson in London.
• June 28 – Historian Gustaf Adlerfelt is killed at the Battle of Poltava; his eyewitness account is continued by his son.[3]

Uncertain dates

• The Works of Mr William Shakespear edited by dramatist Nicholas Rowe appears. It is the first modern edition of Shakespeare's plays, including scene divisions, dramatis personæ and a prefatory account of Shakespeare's life, the first substantial biography of him. An unauthorised seventh volume, including Shakespeare's poems, is perhaps edited by Charles Gildon.
• Ælfric of Eynsham's An English-Saxon Homily on the Birth-day of St. Gregory is translated from Old English by Elizabeth Elstob.
• Anthim the Iberian, Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia, establishes the first Georgian printing press in Tbilisi.

Samuel Johnson's birthplace in Market Square, Lichfield

• April 14 – Charles Collé, French dramatist (died 1783)
• July 24 – James Harris, English grammarian (died 1780)
• August 7 – Jean-Jacques Lefranc, Marquis de Pompignan, French polymath, author and poet (died 1784)
• August 29 – Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset, French poet and dramatist (died 1777)
• September 3 – Joan Claudi Peiròt, French writer in Occitan (died 1795)
• September 18 – Samuel Johnson, English author, critic, lexicographer and poet (died 1784)
• November 1 – Ignatius von Weitenauer, German Jesuit writer, exegete and Orientalist (died 1783)
• November 23 – Julien Offray de La Mettrie, French philosopher and physician (died 1751)
• December 14 – Caspar Friedrich Hachenberg, German grammarian (died 1793)

Uncertain dates

• • Richard Burn, English legal writer (died 1785)
  • John Bancks, English poet, bookseller and biographer (died 1751)

Probable year of birth

• • James Adair, Irish historian (died 1783)
  • John Armstrong, Scottish poet, satirist and physician (died 1779)
  • John Cleland, controversial English novelist (died 1789)[4]

• January – Robert Gould, English poet (born c. 1660)
• February 15 – John Philips, English poet (born 1676)
• May 17 – Mary Pix, English novelist and dramatist (born 1666)
• June 28 – Gustaf Adlerfelt, Swedish military diarist (died in action, born 1671)
• June 30 – Edward Lhuyd, Welsh naturalist and antiquary (born 1660)
• September 4 – Jean-François Regnard, French poet and dramatist (born 1655)
• December 1 – Abraham a Sancta Clara, Austrian theologian (born 1644)
• December 3 – Elizabeth Burnet, English religious writer and philanthropist (born 1661)
• December 8
  • Thomas Corneille, French dramatist (born 1625)
  • Bernadine a Piconio, French theologian and exegete (born 1633)