1980 in literature

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 (bo), 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

• 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

Main article: 1980 in 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

Notes

References

References

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2. Freeman, John, ''The Greatest Shows on Earth: World Theatre from Peter Brook to the Sydney Olympics''. Libri: Oxford {{ISBN. 978 1 907471 54 4
3. (2003). "Tribute to Peter O'Toole". films42.com.
4. Parsons, Nicholas. (1981). "Dipped in Vitriol". Pan Books.
5. (9 February 1981). "Lennon Murder Suspect Preparing Insanity Defense". The New York Times.
6. Cocco, Elisa. (2023). "Alaíde Foppa: una vita da dissidente". Cuadernos del Hipogrifo.
7. Neil Cornwell. (2 December 2013). "Reference Guide to Russian Literature". Routledge.
8. (2005). "On the Margins of Tibet: Cultural Survival on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier".
9. (1980). ""An Old Song" (1877): Robert Louis Stevenson's First Published Story, A New Discovery in the Yale Libraries". The Yale University Library Gazette.
10. Hahn 2015, p. 3
11. Hahn 2015, p.3
12. Hahn 2015, p. 20
13. Hahn 2015, p. 493
14. Hahn 2015, p. 603
15. Hahn 2015, p. 407
16. [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/29/world/around-the-world-kenyan-is-convicted-in-death-of-joy-adamson.html "Around the World Kenyan is Convicted in Death of Joy Adamson".]
17. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2004/feb/08/kenya.conservation Interview with Paul Nakware Ekai.]
18. Michael Cotsell. (10 March 1989). "Barbara Pym". Macmillan International Higher Education.
19. Menna Baines. "PRICHARD, CARADOG (1904–1980), novelist and poet". [[National Library of Wales]].
20. Martin McQuillan. (1 March 2011). "Roland Barthes". Macmillan International Higher Education.
21. (2015). "Qāmūs al-Adab al-ʻArabi al-Hadith". General Egyptian Book Organization.
22. (1991). "Psychodrama: Inspiration and Technique". Tavistock/Routledge.
23. [http://www.evz.ro/detalii/stiri/scriitorul-marin-preda-moartea-ca-o-povara-429889.html Scriitorul Marin Preda, moartea ca o povara (Romanian).]
24. Jay Parini. (2004). "The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature: Norman Mailer-Sentimental literature". Oxford University Press.
25. Obituary, The ''Times'', 23 June 1980
26. (1943). "Who was who in America". Marquis-Who's Who.
27. David Shusterman. (1991). "C.P. Snow". Twayne Publishers.
28. Bona, D. (1987). ''Romain Gary''. Paris: Mercure de France-Lacombe. pp. 397-398.
29. Ingham, Chris. (2006). "The Rough Guide to The Beatles". Rough Guides.
30. (1999). "Who's who of Pulitzer Prize Winners". Greenwood Publishing Group.
31. Whitman, Alden. (January 1, 1981). "Marshall McLuhan, Author, Dies; Declared 'Medium Is the Message'". The New York Times.
32. "Paul Radley". Australia Day Council.
33. (2002). "Who's who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day". Psychology Press.
34. Hahn 2015, p. 660