<!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see WP:SDNONE -->

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1715.

Events

  • c. August – Nicholas Rowe becomes the Poet Laureate of Great Britain.
  • The first record of the actress and writer Eliza Haywood tells of her performing in Thomas Shadwell's Shakespeare adaptation, Timon of Athens; or, The Man-Hater at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.

New books

Prose

  • Joseph Addison – The Free-Holder (periodical)
  • Jane Barker – Exilius; or, The Banished Roman
  • Richard Bentley – A Sermon upon Popery
  • Samuel Croxall – The Vision
  • Daniel Defoe
  • An Appeal to Honour and Justice
  • The Family Instructor
  • A Hymn to the Mob
  • Elizabeth Elstob – The Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue, first given in English; with an apology for the study of northern antiquities, the first grammar of Old English
  • Thomas-Simon Gueullette – Les Mille et un quarts-d’heure, contes tartares (The Thousand and One Quarters of an Hour, Tartarian Tales)
  • Alain-René Lesage (anonymous) – L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (Books 1&ndash;6)
  • Charles Montagu – The Works and Life of the Late Earl of Halifax
  • Jonathan Richardson – An Essay on the Theory of Painting
  • "Captain" Alexander Smith – The Secret History of the Lives of the Most Celebrated Beauties, Ladies of Quality, and Jilts
  • Richard Steele
  • The Englishman: Second Series (periodical)
  • Town-Talk (periodical)

Children

  • Isaac Watts – Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children

Drama

  • Christopher Bullock – A Woman's Revenge
  • Henry Carey – The Contrivances
  • Alexander Russell, Scottish physician and naturalist (died 1768)

Deaths

  • January 7 – François Fénelon, French archbishop, theologian, poet and writer (born 1651)
  • February 25 – Pu Songling (蒲松齡), Qing Dynasty Chinese writer (born 1640)
  • March 8 – William Dampier, English explorer and writer (born 1651)
  • March 17 – Gilbert Burnet, Scottish theologian and historian (born 1643)
  • July 30 – Nahum Tate, Irish poet and hymnist (born 1652)
  • October 13 – Nicolas Malebranche, French priest and rationalist philosopher (born 1638)
  • Unknown date – Mary Monck, Irish poet (date of birth unknown)

References