1765 in literature
This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1765.
Events
- January 10 – Arthur Murphy introduces Hester Thrale and her husband to Samuel Johnson.
- 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.
New books
Fiction
- Henry Brooke – The Fool of Quality
- Madame Riccoboni – L'Histoire d'Ernestine
- Laurence Sterne – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
- Anonymous – ''The Fruit-Shop''
Children
- Anonymous – ''The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes''
Drama
- Isaac Bickerstaffe – operas
- *Daphne and Amintor
- *The Maid of the Mill
- Dorothea Biehl – Den listige Optrækkerske
- George Colman the Elder – The Comedies of Terence
- Ramón de la Cruz – El Prado por la noche
- Charles Dibdin – The Shepherd's Artifice
- Samuel Foote – The Commissary
- Carlo Gozzi – L'augellino bel verde
- Elizabeth Griffith – The Platonic Wife
- Michel-Jean Sedaine – Philosophe sans le savoir
- William Shirley – ''Electra''
Poetry
- 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''
Non-fiction
- William Blackstone – Commentaries on the Laws of England
- John Bunyan – Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan
- Anders Chydenius – The National Gain
- Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro – Opera omnia
- Henry Fuseli – Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks
- 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
- Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes – ''Tratado de la regalía de amortización''
Births
- January 11 – Antoine Alexandre Barbier, French librarian
- March 27 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher
- April 22 – James Grahame, Scottish poet
- September 14 – Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann, German bookseller
- September 15 – Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, Portuguese poet
- October 24 – James Mackintosh, Scottish historian
- November 30 – Johann Friedrich Abegg, German theologian
- unknown date – Jippensha Ikku, Japanese novelist
- Probable year of birth – Henry Luttrell, English wit
Deaths
- March 3 – William Stukeley, English antiquary
- April 5 – Edward Young, English poet, playwright and literary theorist
- April 11 – Lewis Morris, Welsh poet, antiquary and lexicographer
- April 15 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian polymath
- April 23 – Sarah Dixon, English poet
- May 1 – Franz Neumayr, German controversialist and theologian
- December 31 – Samuel Madden, Irish social and political writer
- Unknown date
- *David Mallet, Scottish poet and playwright
- *James Ridley, English novelist and story writer