This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1788.
- January 22 – George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, English poet (died 1824)
- February 28 – Samuel Bamford, English writer, poet and radical (died 1872)
- March 1 – Gheorghe Asachi, Moldavian polymath (died 1869)
- March 20 – Thomas Medwin, English poet, biographer and translator (died 1869)
- September 22 – Theodore Edward Hook, English man of letters and composer (died 1841)
- c. October 14 – Robert Millhouse, English weaver poet (died 1839)
- October 24 – Sarah Josepha Hale, American novelist and poet (died 1879)
- December 6 – Richard Harris Barham (Thomas Ingoldsby), English novelist, poet and cleric (died 1845)
- March 31 – Frances Vane, Viscountess Vane (Lady Fanny), English memoirist (born 1715)
- May 17 – Dorothea Biehl, Danish dramatist and translator (born 1731)
- July 21 – Gaetano Filangieri, Italian philosopher (born 1752)
- August 4 – Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd or Ieuan Brydydd Hir), priest and poet, 57[4]
- August 16 – Francisco Javier Alegre, Mexican historian and translator (born 1729)
- September 16 – Andrea Spagni, Italian theologian (born 1716)
- October 13 – Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent, Irish politician and poet (born 1709)
- ^ Michael Henry Scrivener (2007). The Cosmopolitan Ideal in the Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1776-1832. Pickering & Chatto. p. 224. ISBN 978-1-85196-833-6.
- ^ "Mary Wollstonecraft | Biography, Works, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
- ^ Francis, Sing-chen Lydia (2002). ""What Confucius Wouldn't Talk About": The Grotesque Body and Literati Identities in Yuan Mei's "Zi buyu"". Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews. 24: 129–160. doi:10.2307/823479. ISSN 0161-9705. JSTOR 823479.
- ^ Aneirin Lewis. "Evans, Evan Ieuan Fardd or Ieuan Brydydd Hir 1731-1788), scholar, poet, and cleric". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 21 August 2020.