1980 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1980.

Events

• March 6 – Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman elected to the Académie française.
• June 5
  • The Royal Shakespeare Company opens a production at the Aldwych Theatre, London, of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, adapted from Charles Dickens's novel by David Edgar.
  • Willy Russell's comedy Educating Rita opens in a Royal Shakespeare Company production with Julie Walters in the title rôle, at The Warehouse in London.
• September – A production of Shakespeare's Macbeth with Peter O'Toole in the lead opens at the Old Vic Theatre, London. It is often seen one of the disasters in theatre history.
• September 23 – The Field Day Theatre Company presents its first production, the première of Brian Friel's Translations, at the Guildhall, Derry, Northern Ireland.
• November 27 – The English playwright Harold Pinter marries the biographer and novelist Lady Antonia Fraser after divorcing the actress Vivien Merchant.
• December 8 – Mark David Chapman shoots John Lennon to death in New York City while carrying a copy of J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, which he claims "is my statement."
• December 19 – Guatemalan poet Alaíde Foppa is abducted and never seen again.
• unknown dates
  • Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer (published 1979), tops The New York Times Best Seller list.
  • Vasily Grossman's novel Life and Fate ("Жизнь и судьба", completed 1959) is published for the first time, in Switzerland.
  • The first Tibetan-language literature journal, Tibetan Literature and Art (), is published by the Tibet Autonomous Region Writers Association (TARWA); it features short stories.
  • The novella "An Old Song", published anonymously in 1877 in the magazine London, is identified as Robert Louis Stevenson's first published work of fiction.

New books

Fiction

• Douglas Adams – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
• Woody Allen – Side Effects
• V. C. Andrews – Petals on the Wind
• Jean M. Auel – The Clan of the Cave Bear
• Thomas Berger – Neighbors
• Gary Brandner – Walkers
• Anthony Burgess – Earthly Powers
• Ramsey Campbell, editor – New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
• Jack L. Chalker (Well World)
  • The Return of Nathan Brazil (fourth in the Well of Souls series)
  • Twilight at the Well of Souls (fifth in the Well of Souls series)
• Bruce Chatwin – The Viceroy of Ouidah
• Mary Higgins Clark – The Cradle Will Fall
• J. M. Coetzee – Waiting for the Barbarians
• Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre – The Fifth Horseman
• Pat Conroy – The Lords of Discipline
• Basil Copper – Necropolis
• Michael Crichton – Congo
• L. Sprague de Camp
  • Conan and the Spider God
  • The Purple Pterodactyls
• Brian Daley – Han Solo and the Lost Legacy
• E. L. Doctorow – Loon Lake
• Allan W. Eckert – Song of the Wild
• Umberto Eco – The Name of the Rose (Il Nome della Rosa)
• Dennis Etchison
  • The Fog (film novelization)
  • The Shudder
• Ken Follett – The Key to Rebecca
• John M. Ford – Web of Angels
• Frederick Forsyth – The Devil's Alternative
• George Gipe
  • Melvin and Howard (film novelization)
  • Resurrection (film novelization)
• Donald F. Glut – The Empire Strikes Back
• Mary Jayne Gold – Crossroads Marseilles 1940
• William Golding – Rites of Passage
• Graham Greene – Dr. Fischer of Geneva
• Robert A. Heinlein – The Number of the Beast
• James Herbert – The Dark
• Douglas Hill
  • Day of the Starwind
  • Deathwing Over Veynaa
• Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp – The Treasure of Tranicos
• Hammond Innes – Solomon's Seal
• P. D. James – Innocent Blood
• Stephen King – Firestarter
• Dean Koontz
  • The Funhouse (film novelization)
  • The Voice of the Night
  • Whispers
• Judith Krantz – Princess Daisy
• Björn Kurtén – Dance of the Tiger
• Manuel Mujica Láinez – El gran teatro
• Derek Lambert – I, Said the Spy
• John le Carré – Smiley's People
• Madeleine L'Engle – A Ring of Endless Light
• Robert Ludlum – The Bourne Identity
• Eric Van Lustbader – The Ninja
• Ngaio Marsh – Photo Finish
• Mike McQuay – Lifekeeper
• James A. Michener – The Covenant
• William F. Nolan – Logan's Search
• Cees Nooteboom – Rituals

File:Gay Talese by David Shankbone.jpg

Gay Talese

• Robert B. Parker – Looking for Rachel Wallace
• Pepetela – Mayombe
• Ellis Peters – Monk's Hood
• Tom Phillips – A Humument: a treated Victorian novel (1st trade edition)
• Belva Plain – Random Winds
• Paulette Poujol-Oriol – Le Creuset (The Crucible)
• Marin Preda – Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni (The Most Beloved of Earthlings)
• Barbara Pym (died 1980) – Crampton Hodnet (written 1940)
• A. J. Quinnell – Man on Fire
• Herman Raucher – There Should Have Been Castles
• Mordecai Richler – Joshua Then and Now
• Marilynne Robinson – Housekeeping
• Sidney Sheldon – Rage of Angels
• Clifford D. Simak – The Visitors
• Julian Symons – Sweet Adelaide
• Gay Talese – Thy Neighbor's Wife
• Walter Tevis – Mockingbird
• John Kennedy Toole (suicide 1969) – A Confederacy of Dunces
• Colin Wilson – Starseekers
• Gene Wolfe – The Shadow of the Torturer
• Roger Zelazny
  • Changeling
  • The Last Defender of Camelot

Children and young people

• Richard Adams
  • The Girl in a Swing
  • The Iron Wolf and Other Stories
• Vivien Alcock – The Haunting of Cassie Palmer
• Pamela Allen – Mr Archimedes' Bath
• Lynne Reid Banks – The Indian in the Cupboard
• Jill Barklem – Brambly Hedge series:
  • Spring Story
  • Summer Story
  • Autumn Story
  • Winter Story
• Ruskin Bond – The Cherry Tree
• Matt Christopher – Wild Pitch
• Roald Dahl – The Twits
• David Mckee - Not Now, Bernard
• Thomas M. Disch – The Brave Little Toaster
• Buchi Emecheta – Titch the Cat
• Gordon Korman – Beware the Fish
• Ruth Manning-Sanders – A Book of Spooks and Spectres
• Thomas Meehan – Annie: An old-fashioned story
• Robert Munsch – The Paper Bag Princess
• Susan Musgrave
  • Gullband
  • Hag Head
• Ruth Park – Playing Beatie Bow
• Marjorie W. Sharmat – Gila Monsters Meet you at the Airport
• Mary Stewart – A Walk in Wolf Wood
• Eric Hill – Where's Spot?
• Janet and Allan Ahlberg – Funnybones
• Pam Adams – Mrs Honey's Hat

Drama

• Howard Brenton – The Romans in Britain
• Andrea Dunbar – The Arbor
• David Edgar (adaptation) – The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
• Ronald Harwood – The Dresser
• Ron Hutchinson – The Irish Play
• Kenneth Ross – Breaker Morant
• Willy Russell – Educating Rita
• Sam Shepard – True West

Poetry

• Valerio Magrelli – Ora serrata retinae
• Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse

Non-fiction

• Tony Benn – Arguments for Socialism
• Pierre Berton – The Invasion of Canada
• Maryanne Blacker and Pamela Clark – Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book
• David Bohm – Wholeness and the Implicate Order
• L. Sprague de Camp – The Ragged Edge of Science
• L. Sprague de Camp (as editor) – The Spell of Conan
• Graham Chapman et al. – A Liar's Autobiography
• Marilyn Ferguson – The Aquarian Conspiracy
• Stanley Fish – Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities
• Julien Gracq – Reading Writing
• Graham Greene – Ways of Escape
• Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman – No One Here Gets Out Alive
• Pauline Kael – When the Lights Go Down
• János Kornai – Economics of Shortage (Hiány)
• Paul H. Lewis – Paraguay Under Stroessner
• Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers – Grimoire of Armadel translation from French (posthumous)
• Michael Medved and Harry Medved – The Golden Turkey Awards
• Tom O'Carroll – Paedophilia: The Radical Case
• Carl Sagan – Cosmos
• Anastasio Somoza Debayle and Jack Cox – Nicaragua Betrayed
• D. I. Suchianu – Nestemate cinematografice (Cinematic Pearls)
• Ram Swarup – The Word as Revelation: Names of Gods
• Alvin Toffler – The Third Wave
• Bertram Myron Gross – Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America

Births

• January 1 – Satya Vyas, Indian (Hindi language) writer
• May 1 – Jacek Dehnel, Polish poet, writer and translator
• May 10 – Cristina Nemerovschi, Romanian writer
• May 27 – Majlinda Nana Rama, Albanian pedagogue, writer and researcher
• June 5 – Nestan Kvinikadze, Georgian writer, scriptwriter and journalist
• September 11 – Dawit Kebede, Ethiopian journalist and publisher
• October 29 – Louie Jon Agustin Sanchez, Philippine poet, fiction writer, critic and journalist
• November 23 – Ishmael Beah, Siera Leonean author and human rights activist

Deaths

• January 3
  • Joy Adamson, Silesian-born conservationist and writer living in Kenya (murdered, born 1910)
  • George Sutherland Fraser, Scottish poet and critic (born 1915)
• January 11 – Barbara Pym, English novelist (cancer, born 1913)
• January 21 – Irene Rathbone, English novelist (born 1892)
• February 25 – Caradog Prichard, Welsh poet and novelist in Welsh (born 1904)
• March 12 – Eugeniu Ștefănescu-Est, Romanian poet, novelist and cartoonist (born 1881)
• March 17 – P. M. Hubbard, English crime writer (born 1910)
• March 25 – James Wright, American poet (born 1927)
• March 26 – Roland Barthes, French literary theorist (born 1915)
• March 27 – Idris Jamma', Sudanese poet (died 1980)
• April 6 – John Collier, English-born American short story writer (born 1901)
• April 15 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, novelist and dramatist (born 1905)
• April 24 – Alejo Carpentier, French Cuban novelist and writer (cancer, born 1904)
• May 7 – Margaret Cole, English political writer, biographer and activist (born 1893)
• May 16 – Marin Preda, Romanian novelist (asphyxiation, born 1922)
• June 7
  • Salvator Gotta, Italian writer (born 1887)
  • Henry Miller, American novelist (born 1891)
• June 20 – Amy Key Clarke, English mystical poet (born 1892)
• June 27 – Carey McWilliams, American author, editor and lawyer (born 1905)
• July 1 – C. P. Snow, English novelist and scientist (born 1905)
• July 6 – Mart Raud, Estonian poet, playwright and writer (born 1903)
• July 9 – Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian poet and songwriter (born 1913)
• July 17 – Traian Herseni, Romanian social scientist and journalist (born 1907)
• July 23 – Olivia Manning, English novelist and poet (born 1908)
• July 26 – Kenneth Tynan, English-born theater critic (pulmonary emphysema, born 1927)
• August 8 – David Mercer, English dramatist (born 1928)
• August 10 – Gareth Evans, British philosopher (lung cancer, born 1946)
• September 18 – Katherine Anne Porter, American novelist and essayist (born 1890)
• September 19 – Jacky Gillott, English novelist (suicide, born 1939)
• October 26 – Sam Cree, Northern Irish playwright (born 1928)
• November 9 – Patrick Campbell, Irish journalist and wit (born 1913)
• December 2 – Romain Gary (Roman Kacew), French novelist (suicide, born 1914)
• December 8 – John Lennon, English musician, songwriter and author (murdered, born 1940)
• December 12 – Ben Travers, English playwright, screenwriter and novelist (born 1886)
• December 14 – Nichita Smochină, Transnistrian Romanian ethnographer and journalist (born 1894)
• December 21
  • Marc Connelly, American playwright (born 1890)
  • Nelson Rodrigues, Brazilian playwright, journalist and novelist (born 1912)
• December 27 – Todhunter Ballard, American genre novelist (born 1903)
• December 31 – Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher (born 1911)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Czesław Miłosz

Australia

• The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Inaugural award to Archie Weller, The Day Of The Dog; the award is initially given to Paul Radley, who, in 1996, admits that his manuscript was actually written by his uncle.
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: David Campbell, Man in the Honeysuckle
• Miles Franklin Award: Jessica Anderson, The Impersonators

Canada

• See 1980 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

• Prix Goncourt: Yves Navarre, Le Jardin d'acclimatation
• Prix Médicis French: Jean-Luc Benoziglio, Cabinet-portrait who refused the prize, thus it was given to Jean Lahougue's Comptine des Height
• Prix Médicis International: Andre Brink, Une saison blanche et sèche

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: William Golding, Rites of Passage
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Peter Dickinson, City of Gold
• Cholmondeley Award: George Barker, Terence Tiller, Roy Fuller
• Eric Gregory Award: Robert Minhinnick, Michael Hulse, Blake Morrison, Medbh McGuckian
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robert B. Martin, Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart
• Whitbread Best Book Award: David Lodge, How Far Can You Go?

United States

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Edward Albee
• Caldecott Medal: Barbara Cooney, Ox-Cart Man
• Dos Passos Prize: Graham Greene
• Nebula Award: Gregory Benford, Timescape
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Joan Blos, A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Lanford Wilson, Talley's Folly
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Norman Mailer, The Executioner's Song
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Donald Justice, Selected Poems

Elsewhere

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Ernesto Cardenal
• Hugo Award for Best Novel: Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise
• Premio Cervantes : Juan Carlos Onetti
• Premio Nadal: Juan Ramón Zaragoza, Concerto grosso