See also: 1864 in literature, other events of 1865, 1866 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• July 4 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.
• November 18 - Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press .

New books

• Alec Forbes of Howglen - George MacDonald
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
• From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne
• Germinie Lacerteux - Edmond de Goncourt
• Guy Deverell - Sheridan Le Fanu
• The Humbugs of the World - P. T. Barnum
• Iracema - José de Alencar
• The Life of Charlotte Bronte - Elizabeth Gaskell
• The Lighthouse - RM Ballantyne
• Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds - Robert Smith Surtees
• Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens

Births

• March 15 - Edith Maude Eaton (Sui-Sin Far) (+ 1914)
• December 30 - Rudyard Kipling (+ 1936)
• June 13 - William Butler Yeats (+ 1939)

Deaths

• February 25 - Otto Ludwig , German novelist/playwright
• November 12 - Elizabeth Gaskell, writer

Awards