1775 in literature

• January 17 – Richard Brinsley Sheridan's first play, the comedy of manners The Rivals, is premièred at the Covent Garden Theatre in London, then extensively rewritten. It reopens on January 28 to acclaim. The play introduces the character of Mrs. Malaprop.
• February 23 – Pierre Beaumarchais' comedy Le Barbier de Séville is premièred by the Comédie-Française at the Tuileries Palace in Paris. Rewritten it reopens on February 26 to better success. It introduces the character of Figaro.
• October 19 – Samuel Johnson, Henry Thrale and Hester Thrale, visiting Paris, watch King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette dining.[1]

Uncertain date

• The English actress Sarah Siddons makes her debut at the Drury Lane Theatre in London as Portia in The Merchant of Venice but is poorly received.[2]

• January 30 – Walter Savage Landor, English poet (died 1864)
• February 10 – Charles Lamb, English essayist (died 1834)
• June 15 – Elizabeth Benger, English biographer, novelist and poet (died 1827)
• July 9 – Matthew Lewis, English novelist and dramatist (died 1818)
• August 2 – William Henry Ireland, English forger of Shakespeariana (died 1835)
• December 16 – Jane Austen, English novelist (died 1817)[4]

• January 8 – John Baskerville, English printer and typefounder (born 1707)
• January 13 – Johann Georg Walch, German theologian (born 1693)
• March 5 – Pierre-Laurent Buirette de Belloy, French dramatist and actor (born 1727)
• June 23 – Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz, German adventurer and writer (born 1692)
• November 21 – John Hill, English botanist novelist and dramatist (born c. 1716)

Uncertain date

• Samuel Boyce, English engraver, dramatist and poet (unknown year of birth)

• November – Charles Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities opens at this time ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...")