1980 in literature

– Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman elected to the Académie française.^[1]

June 5

September – A production of Shakespeare's 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.^[3][4]

– The Field Day Theatre Company presents its first production, the première of Brian Friel's Translations, at the Guildhall, Derry, Northern Ireland.

– The English playwright Harold Pinter marries the biographer and novelist Lady Antonia Fraser after divorcing the actress Vivien Merchant.

– 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."^[5]

unknown dates

– The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

– The War of the Roses

– Side Effects

– Petals on the Wind

– The Clan of the Cave Bear

– Neighbors

– Earthly Powers

editor – New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

– The Viceroy of Ouidah

– The Cradle Will Fall

– Waiting for the Barbarians

and Dominique Lapierre -The Fifth Horseman

– The Lords of Discipline

– Necropolis

L. Sprague de Camp

– Loon Lake

– Song of the Wild

– The Name of the Rose (Il Nome della Rosa)

– The Key to Rebecca

– The Devil's Alternative

– Crossroads Marseilles 1940

– Rites of Passage

– Dr. Fischer of Geneva

Douglas Hill

and L. Sprague de Camp – The Treasure of Tranicos

– Solomon's Seal

– Innocent Blood

– Firestarter

– Princess Daisy

– Dance of the Tiger

– El gran teatro

– I, Said the Spy

– Smiley's People

– A Ring of Endless Light

– The Bourne Identity

– Photo Finish

– The Covenant

– Rituals

– Satya Vyas, Indian (Hindi language) writer

– Jacek Dehnel, Polish poet, writer and translator

– Cristina Nemerovschi, Romanian writer

– Majlinda Nana Rama, Albanian pedagogue, writer and researcher

– Nestan Kvinikadze, Georgian writer, scriptwriter and journalist

– Dawit Kebede, Ethiopian journalist and publisher

– Louie Jon Agustin Sanchez, Philippine poet, fiction writer, critic and journalist

– Ishmael Beah, Siera Leonean author and human rights activist

January 3

– Barbara Pym, English novelist (cancer, born 1913)^[17]

– Irene Rathbone, English novelist (born 1892)

– Caradog Prichard, Welsh poet and novelist in Welsh (born 1904)^[18]

– Eugeniu Ștefănescu-Est, Romanian poet, novelist and cartoonist (born 1881)

– P. M. Hubbard, English crime writer (born 1910)

– James Wright, American poet (born 1927)

– Roland Barthes, French literary theorist (born 1915)^[19]

– Idris Jamma', Sudanese poet (died 1980)^[20]

– John Collier, English-born American short story writer (born 1901)

– Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, novelist and dramatist (born 1905)^[21]

– Alejo Carpentier, French Cuban novelist and writer (cancer, born 1904)

– Margaret Cole, English political writer, biographer and activist (born 1893)

– Marin Preda, Romanian novelist (asphyxiation, born 1922)^[22]

June 7

– Amy Key Clarke, English mystical poet (born 1892)^[24]

– Carey McWilliams, American author, editor and lawyer (born 1905)^[25]

– C. P. Snow, English novelist and scientist (born 1905)^[26]

– Mart Raud, Estonian poet, playwright and writer (born 1903)

– Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian poet and songwriter (born 1913)

– Traian Herseni, Romanian social scientist and journalist (born 1907)

– Olivia Manning, English novelist and poet (born 1908)

– Kenneth Tynan, English-born theater critic (pulmonary emphysema, born 1927)

– David Mercer, English dramatist (born 1928)

– Gareth Evans, British philosopher (lung cancer, born 1946)

– Katherine Anne Porter, American novelist and essayist (born 1890)

– Jacky Gillott, English novelist (suicide, born 1939)

– Sam Cree, Northern Irish playwright (born 1928)

– Patrick Campbell, Irish journalist and wit (born 1913)

– Romain Gary (Roman Kacew), French novelist (suicide, born 1914)^[27]

– John Lennon, English musician, songwriter and author (murdered, born 1940)^[28]

– Ben Travers, English playwright, screenwriter and novelist (born 1886)

– Nichita Smochină, Transnistrian Romanian ethnographer and journalist (born 1894)

December 21

– Todhunter Ballard, American genre novelist (born 1903)

– Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher (born 1911)^[30]

: Czesław Miłosz

Hahn, Daniel (2015). The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (2nd ed.). Oxford. University Press.  9780198715542.