1790 in literature

• February 19 – The literary Thomas de Mahy, marquis de Favras (born 1744) is arrested by radicals of the French Revolution, charged with plotting to help King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette escape from the country, convicted of treason, and executed. When handed his official death sentence by the court clerk, he reads it, shakes his head and says: "I see you have made three spelling mistakes."
• May 21 – Thomas Warton dies and is succeeded as Poet Laureate of Great Britain by writer and police magistrate Henry James Pye, who has retired as a Member of Parliament. William Hayley refuses the post.
• May 31 – United States President George Washington approves the Copyright Act of 1790.[1]
• June 9 – John Barrie's Philadelphia Spelling Book Arranged Upon a Plan Entirely New becomes the first American book copyrighted.[2]
• Xavier de Maistre writes Voyage autour de ma chambre (Voyage Around my Room, published 1794) while under arrest in Turin in the Kingdom of Sardinia, as the result of a duel.
• The Royal Literary Fund is founded in Britain by David Williams.

Uncertain date

• William Lane establishes the Minerva Press in London, specializing in Gothic fiction.

• January 1 – James Wills, Irish poet (died 1868)
• January 10 – Anders Abraham Grafström, Swedish historian, priest and poet (died 1870)
• January 29 – George Métivier, Guernsey poet writing in Guernésiais (died 1881)
• March 3 – John Austin, English legal philosopher (died 1859)
• March 6 – Jacques Arago, French traveler and writer (died 1855)
• March 18 – Marquis de Custine, French aristocrat and travel writer (died 1857)
• June 9 – Abel-François Villemain, French politician and writer (died 1870)
• June 24 – Helena Ekblom, Swedish writer and preacher (died 1859)
• July 8 – Fitz-Greene Halleck, American poet (died 1867)
• August 8 – Ferenc Kölcsey, Hungarian poet and critic (died 1838)[6]
• October 1 – Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, English novelist (died 1846)
• October 21 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet (died 1869)
• December 8 – Richard Carlile, English advocate of suffrage and press freedom (died 1843)
• December 25 – Anna Eliza Bray, English novelist and travel writer (died 1883)
• Unknown date — Mary Diana Dods (also as David Lyndsay and Walter Sholto Douglas), Scottish writer (died 1830 in literature)

• March 20 – Thomas Richards of Coychurch, cleric and lexicographer (born c.1710)[7]
• April 3 – Ephraim Kuh, German poet, 58/9[8]
• April 29 – Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French art critic (born 1715)[9]
• May 2 – Martin Madan, English writer and cleric (born 1726)
• May 6 – Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, French military writer (born 1743)
• May 21 – Thomas Warton, English poet and literary historian (born 1798)[10]
• July 7 – François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher (born 1721)[11]
• July 17 – Adam Smith, Scottish philosopher and political economist (born 1723)[12]
• July 25 – William Livingston, American political writer and politician (born 1723)[13]
• Probable year of death – Marc-Antoine Eidous, French encyclopedist (born c. 1724)

• Julia Golding's novel The Diamond of Drury Lane (2006) is set during this year.[14]