See also: 1760 in literature, other events of 1761, 1762 in literature, list of years in literature.

New books

• Denis Diderot - Le neveu de Rameau
• Tiphaigne de la Roche - L'Empire des Zaziris sur les humains ou la Zazirocratie
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse
• Frances Sheridan - Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph

New drama

• Richard Cumberland - The Banishment of Cicero
• Carlo Gozzi - The Love for Three Oranges

Poetry

• John Cleland - The Times!, vol. 2

Non-fiction

• Baron d'Holbach - Christianity unveiled
• Henry Home, Lord Kames - Introduction to the Art of Thinking

Births

• May 3 - August von Kotzebue
• September 8 - François Juste Marie Raynouard

Deaths

• April 9 - William Law, theologian
• April 15 - William Oldys, bibliographer
• July 4 - Samuel Richardson, novelist
• August 3 - Johann Matthias Gesner, librarian and classical scholar

1761 books