# 1980 in literature

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."
* 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 (Bod kyi rtsom rig sgyu rtsal), 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
* Warren Adler – The War of the Roses
* Woody Allen – Side Effects
* V. C. Andrews – Petals on the Wind
* Jean M. Auel – The Clan of the Cave Bear
* Thomas Berger – Neighbors
* Anthony Burgess – Earthly Powers
* Ramsey Campbell, editor – New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
* 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
* L. Sprague de Camp
** Conan and the Spider God
** The Purple Pterodactyls
* E. L. Doctorow – Loon Lake
* Allan W. Eckert – Song of the Wild
* Umberto Eco – The Name of the Rose (Il Nome della Rosa)
* Ken Follett – The Key to Rebecca
* Frederick Forsyth – The Devil's Alternative
* Mary Jayne Gold – Crossroads Marseilles 1940
* William Golding – Rites of Passage
* Graham Greene – Dr. Fischer of Geneva
* 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
* 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
* Ngaio Marsh – Photo Finish
* James A. Michener – The Covenant
* Cees Nooteboom – Rituals
* 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)
* Herman Raucher – There Should Have Been Castles
* Mordecai Richler – Joshua Then and Now
* Marilynne Robinson – Housekeeping
* Sidney Sheldon – Rage of Angels
* Julian Symons – Sweet Adelaide
* Gay Talese – Thy Neighbor's Wife
* Walter Tevis – Mockingbird
* John Kennedy Toole (suicide 1969) – A Confederacy of Dunces
* 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
* 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

* Hugo Award for Best Novel: Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise
* Premio Cervantes : Juan Carlos Onetti
* Premio Nadal: Juan Ramón Zaragoza, Concerto grosso