# 1780 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1780.

## Events

* September/October – Richard Brinsley Sheridan is elected to Parliament in the 1780 British general election.
* December – Karl von Marinelli becomes head of the Schultz theatre company (Schultzsche Gesellschaft) of Baden.
* unknown dates
** Det Dramatiske Selskab in Christiania, an amateur acting troupe, is formed and gives the first regular stage performances in Norway.
** A legal deposit law entitles the Załuski Library in Warsaw to a copy of every book published in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

## New books
### Fiction

* Elizabeth Blower – The Parsonage House
* Herbert Croft – Love and Madness
* Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire – The Sylph
* Thomas Holcroft – Alwyn
* Samuel Jackson Pratt – Emma Corbett, or, The miseries of civil war

### Children

* Mrs. Trimmer – An Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature, and Reading the Holy Scriptures. Adapted to the Capacities of Children

### Drama

* Hannah Cowley – The Belle's Stratagem
* Sophia Lee – The Chapter of Accidents
* Isaac Reed – A Select Collection of Old Plays (from Robert Dodsley's press)

### Poetry

* Hannah Cowley – The Maid of Aragon
* George Crabbe – The Candidate
* Herbert Croft – The Abbey of Kilkhampton; or, Monumental Records for the Year 1980 (satire)
* Susannah Harrison – Songs in the Night
* William Hayley – An Essay on History
* Anna Seward – Elegy on Captain Cook
* Christoph Martin Wieland – Oberon

### Non-fiction

* William Beckford – Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters
* Jacob Bryant – An Address to Dr. Priestley
* Edmund Burke – Speech on Oeconomical Reformation
* Giacomo Casanova – Opuscoli miscellanei (containing Il duello and Lettere della nobil donna Silvia Belegno alla nobil donzella Laura Gussoni)
* William Combe – Letters of the Late Lord Lyttelton (forgeries)
* Martin Madan – Thelyphthora (in favor of polygamy)
* Johannes von Müller – Geschichten der Schweizer
* John Nichols – A Select Collection of Poems
* Richard Price – An Essay on the Population of England
* Joseph Priestley – Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever
* William Shakespeare – Supplement to the Edition of Shakespeare's Plays Published in 1778 by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens (by Edmond Malone)
* Horace Walpole – On Modern Gardening
* John Wesley – Reflections on the Rise and Progress of the American Rebellion
* Arthur Young – A Tour in Ireland

## Births

* March 6 – Lucy Barnes, American writer (died 1809)
* March 10 – Frances Trollope, English novelist (died 1863)
* June 1 – Carl von Clausewitz, German soldier and military historian and theorist (died 1831)
* June 3 – William Hone, English satirist (died 1842)
* August 14 – George Croly, Irish poet, novelist and historian (died 1860)
* November 27 – William Cardell, American grammarian and writer of boys' stories (died 1828)
* December 20 – John Wilson Croker, Irish statesman and author (died 1857)
* December 26 – Mary Somerville, Scottish science writer and polymath (died 1872)
* probable
** Maria Elizabeth Budden, English novelist and writer of didactic children's books (died 1832)
** Anna Maria Porter, English poet and novelist (died 1832)

## Deaths

* January 31 – Jonathan Carver, American explorer and writer (born 1710)
* February 14 – William Blackstone, English jurist and legal author (born 1723)
* February 17 – Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (born 1706)
* April 29 – Claude Joseph Dorat, "Le Chevalier Dorat", French poet and novelist (born 1734)
* May 11 – Nicolas Fernández de Moratín, Spanish literary reformer (born 1737)
* July 14 – Charles Batteux, French philosopher (born 1713)
* September 4 – Sir John Fielding, English social reformer and half-brother of Henry Fielding (born 1721)
* September 8 – Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, French novelist (born 1711)
* September 23 – Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand, French salon hostess (born 1697)
* December 22 – James Harris, English grammarian (born 1709)