1755 in literature
This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1755.
—Self-deprecating definition by Samuel Johnson from A Dictionary of the English LanguageEvents
- April 15 – Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published by the group of London booksellers who commissioned it in June 1746.
- Milton's Paradise Lost is translated into French prose by Louis Racine.
- First New Testament in the Ume Sami language is published.
New Books
Fiction
- Charlotte Charke – The History of Mr. Henry Dumont and Miss Charlotte Evelyn
- Eliza Haywood as "Exploralibus" – The Invisible Spy
- Samuel Richardson – A Collection of... Sentiments
- John Shebbeare – Letters on the English Nation
- Tobias Smollett – The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote
Poetry
- John Byrom – Epistle in Defence of Rhyme
- George Colman, the Elder and Bonnell Thornton – Poems by Eminent Ladies
- John Gilbert Cooper – The Tomb of Shakespear
- David Dalrymple – Edom of Gordon: an ancient Scottish poem
- Stephen Duck – Caesar's Camp
Non-fiction
- Thomas Amory – Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain
- Theophilus Cibber – An Epistle to David Garrick
- Madame de Maintenon – Mémoires
- Philip Doddridge – Hymns Founded on Various Texts
- Henry Fielding – The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
- Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg – Shaagas Aryeh
- James Hervey – Theron and Aspasio; or a series of letters upon the most important and interesting subjects
- Benjamin Hoadly – Twenty Sermons
- Francis Hutcheson – A System of Moral Philosophy
- Samuel Johnson – A Dictionary of the English Language
- Étienne-Gabriel Morelly – Code de la nature, ou de véritable esprit de ses lois
- Frederic Louis Norden – Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie
- Charles Wesley – An Epistle to John Wesley
- Edward Young – The Centaur not Fabulous; in five letters to a friend
Drama
- John Brown – Barbarosa
- John Cleland – Titus Vespasian
- Thomas Francklin – The Orphan of China
- David Garrick – The Fairies
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing – Miss Sara Sampson
- David Mallet – Britannia
- Vicente Garcia de la Huerta – Endimión
Births
- February 17 – Dorothy Kilner, English children's writer
- February 21 – Anne Grant, Scottish poet
- March 5 – Jozef Ignác Bajza, pioneer Slovak novelist, satirist and priest
- March 15 – George Dyer, English poet and classicist
- December 31 – Thomas Grenville, English politician and book collector
- Unknown date – Maria Elizabetha Jacson, English writer on botany and gardening
- 1755/6 – Eliza Fay, English letter-writer and traveler
Deaths
- February 10 – Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, French satirist
- March – Jane Collier, English novelist
- April 6 – Richard Rawlinson, English antiquary and cleric
- September 9 – Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, German Lutheran church historian
- December 29 – Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, French children's writer
- Unknown date – Antoni Serra Serra, Spanish religious writer