1820 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1820.

Events

 * January 16 – Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery by "Northamptonshire peasant poet" John Clare is published in England by John Taylor.
 * April 22 – Walter Scott is created 1st baronet of Abbotsford in the County of Roxburgh in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.
 * September – Poet John Keats, suffering from tuberculosis, leaves London to take up residence in the house on the Spanish Steps in Rome where he will die in 1821.
 * November 20 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex, a whaleship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, 2,000 miles off the western coast of South America. Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick is in part inspired by this story.
 * unknown dates
 * More than 20 years after the poet's death, Robert Chambers edits and publishes The Songs of Robert Burns.
 * Thomas Kendall has the first book printed in the Māori language, A korao no New Zealand; or, the New Zealander's first book; being an attempt to compose some lessons for the instruction of the natives, published in Sydney, Australia.
 * The first translation of the Old English epic poem Beowulf into a modern language, Danish, Bjovulfs Drape, by N. F. S. Grundtvig, is published.
 * The Cambridge Apostles, an intellectual discussion group, is established at the University of Cambridge in England.

Fiction

 * James Fenimore Cooper – Precaution
 * Thomas Gaspey – Forty Years Ago
 * Robert Huish – Castle of Nielo
 * Francis Lathom – Italian Mysteries
 * Charles Maturin (anonymously) – Melmoth the Wanderer
 * Regina Marie Roche – The Munster Cottage Boy
 * Sir Walter Scott (anonymously)
 * Ivanhoe (published 1819, dated 1820)
 * The Abbot
 * The Monastery
 * Louisa Stanhope – The Crusaders
 * Rosalia St. Clair – The Highland Castle, and the Lowland Cottage

Children

 * Maria Hack
 * English Stories, illustrating some of the most interesting events and characters between the Accession of Alfred and the Death of John
 * English Stories. Second series, between the Accession of Henry the Third and the Death of Henry the Sixth
 * Mary Shelley – Maurice, or the Fisher's Cot (written 1820 then lost, published 1997)

Drama

 * James Sheridan Knowles – Virginius
 * William Thomas Moncrieff – The Lear of Private Life
 * Percy Bysshe Shelley – Prometheus Unbound
 * George Soane – The Hebrew
 * Charles Edward Walker – Wallace

Poetry

 * Robert Burns (died 1796) – The Songs of Robert Burns
 * John Clare – Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery
 * John Keats
 * The Eve of St. Agnes
 * Lamia and Other Poems
 * Alphonse de Lamartine – Méditations poétiques
 * Adam Mickiewicz – Ode to Youth (Oda do młodości)
 * Nguyễn Du – The Tale of Kieu (斷腸新聲, Truyện Kiều)
 * Aleksandr Pushkin – Ruslan and Ludmila (Руслан и Людмила)
 * Percy Bysshe Shelley – To a Skylark

Non-fiction

 * Thomas Brown – Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind
 * Howard Douglas – A Treatise on Naval Gunnery
 * Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – Elements of the Philosophy of Right
 * John George Hoffman – Pow-Wows; or, Long Lost Friend
 * Claude François Lallemand – Recherches anatomico-pathologiques sur l'encéphale et ses dépendances (to 1832)
 * Charles Lamb – Essays of Elia (begin publication in The London Magazine)
 * Thomas Malthus – Principles of Political Economy
 * Charles Mills – History of the Crusades for the Recovery and Possession of the Holy Land
 * Robert Southey – Life of Wesley
 * Mariana Starke – Travels on the Continent: written for the use and particular information of travellers

Births

 * January 17 – Anne Brontë, English novelist and poet (died 1849)
 * January 30 – Concepción Arenal, Spanish feminist writer and activist (died 1893)
 * February 28 – John Tenniel, English illustrator and cartoonist (died 1914)
 * March 2 – Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker), Dutch writer (died 1887)
 * March 17 – Jean Ingelow, English poet and novelist (died 1897)
 * March 30 – Anna Sewell, English novelist (died 1878)
 * April 4 – Mkrtich Khrimian, Armenian Catholicos, essayist and poet (died 1907)
 * April 16 – Charlotte A. Jerauld, American poet and story writer (died 1845)
 * April 26 – Alice Cary, American poet and short-story writer (died 1871)
 * April 27 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (died 1903)
 * June 21 – James Halliwell-Phillipps, English bibliophile (died 1889)
 * August 13 – Sir George Grove, English writer and lexicographer on music (died 1900)
 * September 2 – Lucretia Peabody Hale, American journalist and author (died 1900)
 * September 17 – Émile Augier, French dramatist (died 1889)
 * October 14 – John Harris, English poet (died 1884)
 * November 23 (December 5 N.S.) – Afanasy Fet, Russian lyric poet, essayist and short-story writer (died 1892)
 * November 28 – Friedrich Engels, German socialist writer (died 1895)

Deaths

 * February 5 – William Drennan, Irish poet, radical and educationalist (born 1754)
 * February 23 – Alojzy Feliński, Polish poet (born 1771)
 * March 20 – Eaton Stannard Barrett, Irish satirical poet and novelist (born 1786)
 * April 2 – Thomas Brown, Scottish philosopher and poet (born 1778)
 * May 1 – Richmal Mangnall, English schoolbook writer (born 1769)
 * July 16 – William Hazlitt Sr., Irish writer, radical and Unitarian minister, father of William Hazlitt (born 1737)
 * August 23 – Michel de Cubières, French poet, dramatist and historian (born 1752)
 * September 16 – Nguyễn Du, Vietnamese poet (born 1766)
 * October 5 – Augustin Barruel, French Jesuit priest and writer (born 1741)
 * November 8 – Lavinia Stoddard, American poet and educationist (born 1787)
 * November 12 – William Hayley, English poet and biographer (born 1745)
 * Probable – Dionisie Eclesiarhul, Wallachian scribe, chronicler and illustrator (born c. 1740)