1761 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1761.

Events

• August - Following the death of Johann Matthias Gesner, the chair of rhetoric at the University of Göttingen is refused by both Johann August Ernesti and by David Ruhnken. It eventually goes to Christian Gottlob Heyne.
• Playwright Carlo Goldoni moves permanently from Venice to Paris.

New books

Fiction

• John Hawkesworth - Almoran and Hamet
• William Kenrick - Eloisa
• Thomas Percy (transl.) - Hau Kou Choan
• James Ridley as "Sir Charles Morrell" - 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.

New drama

• Isaac Bickerstaffe - Judith
• Henry Brooke - The Earl of Essex (adapted)
• George Colman the Elder – The Jealous Wife
• Richard Cumberland - The Banishment of Cicero
• Richard Glover - Medea
• Carlo Goldoni
  • Una delle ultime sere di Carnevale
  • La villeggiatura (or La trilogia della villeggiatura, "The resort")
• Carlo Gozzi
  • L'amore delle tre melarance ("The Love for Three Oranges")
  • Il corvo ("The Raven")
• 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
• Edward Jernigham - Andromache to Pyrrhus
• Robert Lloyd - An Epistle to Charles Churchill
• James Scott - Odes
• Edward Thompson - The Meretriciad (a satire on Kitty Fisher, a prostitute)
• 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 (anthology)
• Ignacio de la Erbada - Los fantasmas de Madrid y estafermos de la Corte
• 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

• May 3 – August von Kotzebue, German dramatist (died 1819)
• July 25 – Charlotte von Kalb, German writer (died 1843)
• September 8 – François Juste Marie Raynouard, French dramatist (died 1836)
• September 13 – Santō Kyōden, born Iwase Samuru, Japanese fiction writer, poet and artist (died 1816)
• November 13 – Elizabeth Meeke, English popular novelist (died c.1826)
• Unknown date – Mary Pilkington, English novelist, poet and children's writer (died 1839)

Deaths

• April 9 – William Law, English theologian (born 1686)
• April 15 – William Oldys, English antiquary and bibliographer (born 1696)
• April 17 – Benjamin Hoadly, English bishop and instigator of the Bangorian Controversy (born 1676)
• July 4 – Samuel Richardson, English novelist (born 1689)
• August 3 – Johann Matthias Gesner, German librarian and classicist (born 1691)
• December 15 – Henrietta Louisa Fermor (Countess of Pomfret), English letter writer (year of birth unknown)