1765 in literature

	… 1755; 1756; 1757; 1758; 1759; 1760; 1761; ; 1762; 1763; 1764; 1765; 1766; 1767; 1768; ; 1769; 1770; 1771; 1772; 1773; 1774; 1775 …;
	In poetry 1762 1763 1764 1765 1766 1767 1768
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1765.

Events

January 9 or 10 – Arthur Murphy introduces Hester Thrale and her husband to Samuel Johnson.
October 10 – Samuel Johnson and George Steevens' edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare is published in London after ten years in the making.
Beginning of the Sturm und Drang movement in German literature
Denis Diderot completes the Encyclopédie.

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)

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 3 – James Mackintosh, Scottish historian (died 1832)
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)
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)
April 15 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian polymath (born 1711)
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)

Walter Scott's novel Redgauntlet (1824) presents an alternate history of this year in Scotland.^[3]

^ "The story behind Goody Two Shoes". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
^ Jones, Barry (2017). Dictionary of World Biography: Fourth edition. ANU Press. p. 85. ISBN 9781760461263.
^ "Writing Scotland – Walter Scott". BBC. Retrieved 17 June 2018.