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.

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)