Events

January 10 – Arthur Murphy introduces Hester Thrale and her husband to Samuel Johnson.^[1]
August 12 – I'tisam-ud-Din writes the Treaty of Allahabad between the Mughal Empire and the British East India Company
October 10 – Samuel Johnson's edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare is published in London after ten years in the making.
unknown date – Denis Diderot completes the Encyclopédie.
Approximate year – Beginning of the Sturm und Drang movement in German literature.^[2]

New books

Henry Brooke – The Fool of Quality (volume one; the fifth and last appeared in 1770)
Madame Riccoboni – L'Histoire d'Ernestine
Laurence Sterne – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (vol vii–viii)
Anonymous – The Fruit-Shop

James Beattie
- The Judgment of Paris
- Verses Occasioned by the Death of Charles Churchill
William Collins – Works
Edward Jerningham – An Elegy Written Among the Ruins of an Abbey
James Macpherson – The Works of Ossian
Thomas Percy – Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
Christopher Smart – A Translation of the Psalms of David
Percival Stockdale – Churchill Defended
Nicolás Fernandez de Moratín – La Diana o Arte de la caza

William Blackstone – Commentaries on the Laws of England (publication begins)
John Bunyan (died 1688) – Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan
Anders Chydenius – The National Gain (Den nationnale winsten)
Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro – Opera omnia
Henry Fuseli – Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks (translation of Johann Joachim Winckelmann)
Oliver Goldsmith – Essays
William Kenrick – A Review of Doctor Johnson's New Edition of Shakespeare
Filip Lastrić
- Epitome vetustatum Bosnensis provinciae
- Od uzame
Friedrich Christoph Oetinger – Swedenborg und anderer Irrdische und himmlische Philosophie
Joseph Priestley – Essay on a Course of Liberal Education for Civil and Active Life
George Alexander Stevens – The Celebrated Lecture on Heads
Tobias Smollett – Continuation of the History of England (a supplement to Hume's History of England; final volume)
Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes – Tratado de la regalía de amortización

January 4 – Jacob Grimm, German philologist and mythologist (died 1863)
January 11 – Antoine Alexandre Barbier, French librarian (died 1825)
March 27 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher (died 1841)
April 22 – James Grahame, Scottish poet (died 1811)
September 14 – Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann, German bookseller (died 1837)
September 15 – Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, Portuguese poet (died 1805)^[5]
October 24 – James Mackintosh, Scottish historian (died 1832)^[6]
November 30 – Johann Friedrich Abegg, German theologian (died 1840)
unknown date – Jippensha Ikku (十返舎一九 Shigeta Sadakazu), Japanese novelist (died 1831)
Probable year of birth – Henry Luttrell, English wit (died 1851)

March 3 – William Stukeley, English antiquary (born 1687)
April 5 – Edward Young, English poet, playwright and literary theorist (born 1683)
April 11 – Lewis Morris, Welsh poet, antiquary and lexicographer (born 1701)^[7]
April 15 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian polymath (born 1711)^[8]
April 23 – Sarah Dixon, English poet (born 1671 or 1672)
May 1 – Franz Neumayr, German controversialist and theologian (born 1697)
December 31 – Samuel Madden, Irish social and political writer (born 1686)
Unknown date
- David Mallet, Scottish poet and playwright (born c. 1705)
- James Ridley (Sir Charles Morell), English novelist and story writer (born 1736)