1820 in literature

• 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. ==New books==

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 • 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) ==References==