1777 in literature

• February 8 – Thomas Chatterton's volume Poems, Supposed to Have Been Written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century is published anonymously and posthumously in London, edited by Thomas Tyrwhitt, who still believes them to be genuine work by a medieval monk transcribed by Chatterton.[1]
• March – Fanny Burney is introduced to Samuel Johnson by her father, Charles Burney.[2]
• April 1 – Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's play Sturm und Drang is premièred by the Seyler theatrical company in Leipzig. It gives its name to the Sturm und Drang movement in German literature.
• April 12 – The poet and grammarian Robert Lowth is appointed Bishop of London.
• May 8 – The first performance of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy of manners The School for Scandal takes place at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.[3]
• October – James Boswell's essays first appear as The Hypochondriak in The London Magazine.

Uncertain date

• Det Dramatiske Selskab is founded in Copenhagen (Denmark) as an acting academy.

• February – James Johnson, Irish surgeon and medical writer (died 1845)
• February 12 – Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, German Romantic novelist (died 1843)
• February 16 – Maria Hack, English children's writer (died 1844)
• June 3 – Antonio Gasparinetti, Italian poet, playwright and military officer (died 1824)
• July 27 – Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet (died 1844)

• February 3 – Hugh Kelly, Irish poet and dramatist (born 1739)
• September 24 (bur.) – James Fortescue, English poet (born 1716)[6]
• October 12 (October 1 O.S.) – Alexander Sumarokov, Russian poet and dramatist (born 1717)
• October 21 – Samuel Foote, English dramatist (born 1720)