See also: 1784 in literature, other events of 1785, 1786 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• January 1 - First publication of the Daily Universal Register (later The Times)
• Thomas Warton becomes Poet Laureate

New Books

• Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson - James Boswell
• The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy - William Paley
• The Valour of the Magyars - János Bacsanyi
• Les 120 journées de Sodome - Marquis de Sade
• Anton Reiser (to 1790) - Karl Philipp Moritz

Births

• January 4 - Jakob Grimm
• March 7 - Alessandro Manzoni, Italian poet and novelist
• March 21 - Henry Kirke White, poet
• May 18 - John Wilson ("Christopher North" of Blackwood's Magazine)
• August 15 - Thomas de Quincey
• October 18 - Thomas Love Peacock

Deaths

• December 29 - Johan Herman Wessel

Awards