1776 in literature

See also: 1775 in literature, other events of 1776, 1777 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New books

• Fragment on Government – Jeremy Bentham
• The Runaway – Hannah Cowley
• Volume I of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Edward Gibbon
• A General History of the Science and Practice of Music – John Hawkin
• Edward Allwill's Briefsammlung – Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
• Common Sense – Thomas Paine
• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith

New drama

• Stella – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Sturm und Drang – Friedrich von Klinger

Births

• January 24 – E T A Hoffman
• February 12 – Richard Mant
• November 20 – William Blackwood

Deaths

• April 29 – Edward Wortley Montagu, travel writer
• May 23 – Jeanne Julie Eleonore de Lespinasse, "Mademoiselle de Lespinasse"

Awards