1980 in literature
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See also: 1979 in literature, other events of 1980, 1981 in literature, list of years in literature.
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Events
- Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer (published 1979), reaches #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
- Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie is published.
New books
- Company - Samuel Beckett
- The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum
- A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
- Cosmos - Carl Sagan
- The Covenant - James A. Michener
- The Cradle Will Fall - Mary Higgins Clark
- Crossroads Marseilles 1940 - Mary Jayne Gold
- The Devil's Alternative - Frederick Forsyth
- The Fifth Horseman - Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
- Firestarter - Stephen King
- The Girl in a Swing - Richard Adams
- In Loon Lake - E. L. Doctorow
- The Invasion of Canada - Pierre Berton
- The Iron Wolf and Other Stories - Richard Adams
- Joshua Then and Now - Mordecai Richler
- The Key to Rebecca - Ken Follett
- The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
- Princess Daisy - Judith Krantz
- Rage of Angels - Sidney Sheldon
- Random Winds - Belva Plain
- A Ring of Endless Light - Madeleine L'Engle
- Smiley's People - John le Carré
- Song of the Wild - Allan W. Eckert
- The Third Wave - Alvin Toffler
- Thy Neighbor's Wife - Gay Talese
- War of the Roses - Warren Adler
Births
Deaths
- January 3 - Joy Adamson, conservationist and author of Born Free
(killed by a servant in northern Kenya).
- January 3 - G. S. Fraser, poet and critic
- January 11 - Barbara Pym, novelist
- March 25 - James Wright, poet
- April 15 - Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher, novelist and dramatist
- June 7 - Henry Miller, writer
- July 1 - C. P. Snow, novelist
- July 9 - Vinicius de Moraes, poet and songwriter
- July 26 - Kenneth Tynan, influential theatre critic
- September 18 - Katherine Anne Porter, novelist and essayist
- November 9 - Patrick Campbell, journalist and wit
- November 22 - Mae West, actress and dramatist
- December 2 - Romain Gary, writer
- December 8 - John Lennon, musician, author
- December 12 - Ben Travers, dramatist
- December 31 - Marshall McLuhan (author)
- date unknown - Gareth Evans, philosopher
- date unknown - Caradog Prichard, Welsh-language poet and novelist
Awards
- Booker Prize: William Golding, Rites of Passage
- See 1980 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
- Nebula Award: Gregory Benford, Timescape
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Joan Blos, A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal
- Nobel Prize for Literature: Czeslaw Milosz
- Premio Cervantes : Juan Carlos Onetti
- 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: André Brink, Une saison blanche et sèche
- 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
- Whitbread Best Book Award: David Lodge, How Far Can You Go?