1761 in literature
This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1761.Events
Fiction
- John Hawkesworth – Almoran and Hamet
- William Kenrick – Eloisa
- Thomas Percy – Hau Kou Choan
- James Ridley – The History of James Lovegrove
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse
- Frances Sheridan – Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph
- Laurence Sterne – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman vols. iii – iv.
Drama
- Isaac Bickerstaffe – Judith
- Henry Brooke – The Earl of Essex
- George Colman the Elder – The Jealous Wife
- Richard Cumberland – The Banishment of Cicero
- Richard Glover – Medea
- Carlo Goldoni
- *Una delle ultime sere di Carnevale
- *:it:La villeggiatura|La villeggiatura
- Carlo Gozzi
- *L'amore delle tre melarance
- *Il corvo
- Arthur Murphy
- *All in the Wrong
- *The Citizen
- *The Old Maid
Poetry
- John Armstrong – A Day: An epistle to John Wilkes
- Charles Churchill
- *The Apology
- *Night: An epistle to Robert Lloyd
- *The Rosciad
- John Cleland – The Times!, vol. 2
- Francis Fawkes – Original Poems and Translations
- Robert Lloyd – An Epistle to Charles Churchill
- Diego de Torres Villarroel – Poesías sagradas y profanas
Non-fiction
- Thomas Cole – Discourses on Luxury, Infidelity, and Enthusiasm
- George Colman the Elder – Critical Reflections on the Old English Dramatick Writers
- Denis Diderot – Rameau's Nephew
- Robert Dodsley – Select Fables of Esop and Other Fabulists
- Enrique Flórez – Memorias de las reinas católicas
- Baron d'Holbach – Christianity unveiled
- Henry Home – Introduction to the Art of Thinking
- David Hume – The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Accession of Henry VII
- Joseph Priestley – The Rudiments of English Grammar
- Tiphaigne de la Roche – L'Empire des Zaziris sur les humains ou la Zazirocratie
- Martín Sarmiento – Noticia sobre la verdadera patria de Cervantes
- Benjamin Victor – History of the Theatres of London and Dublin vol. 1–2
Births
- March 8 – Jan Potocki, Polish count, military engineer, ethnologist, Egyptologist, linguist, aeronaut, adventurer and novelist
- May 3 – August von Kotzebue, German dramatist
- July 25 – Charlotte von Kalb, German writer
- September 8 – François Juste Marie Raynouard, French dramatist
- September 13 – Santō Kyōden, born Iwase Samuru, Japanese fiction writer, poet and artist
- November 13 – Elizabeth Meeke, English popular novelist
- Unknown dates
- *Mary Pilkington, English novelist, poet and children's writer
- *Mariana Starke, English playwright and travel writer
Deaths
- April 9 – William Law, English theologian
- April 15 – William Oldys, English antiquary and bibliographer
- April 17 – Benjamin Hoadly, English bishop and instigator of the Bangorian Controversy
- July 4 – Samuel Richardson, English novelist
- August 3 – Johann Matthias Gesner, German librarian and classicist
- December 15 – Henrietta Louisa Fermor, English letter writer
