1820 in literature

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

List of years in literature (table)
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Events

• January 16 – Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery by "Northamptonshire peasant poet" John Clare is published in England by John Taylor.^[1]
• April 22 – Walter Scott is created 1st baronet of Abbotsford in the County of Roxburgh in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.^[2]
• 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.^[3]
  • 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.^[4]
  • The first translation of the Old English epic poem Beowulf into a modern language, Danish, Bjovulfs Drape, by N. F. S. Grundtvig, is published.^[5]
  • The Cambridge Apostles, an intellectual discussion group, is established at the University of Cambridge in England.^[6]

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
• William Thomas Moncrieff – The Lear of Private Life
• Percy Bysshe Shelley – Prometheus Unbound
• 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
• 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)^[7]
• January 30 – Concepción Arenal, Spanish feminist writer and activist (died 1893)^[8]
• February 28 – John Tenniel, English illustrator and cartoonist (died 1914)^[9]
• March 2 – Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker), Dutch writer (died 1887)^[10]
• March 17 – Jean Ingelow, English poet and novelist (died 1897)^[11]
• 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)^[12]
• April 26 – Alice Cary, American poet and short-story writer (died 1871)^[13]
• April 27 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (died 1903)^[14]
• 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)^[15]
• September 17 – Émile Augier, French dramatist (died 1889)^[16]
• 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)^[17]

Deaths

• February 5 – William Drennan, Irish poet, radical and educationalist (born 1754)
• February 23 – Alojzy Feliński, Polish poet (born 1771)^[18]
• March 20 – Eaton Stannard Barrett, Irish satirical poet and novelist (born 1786)^[19]
• April 2 – Thomas Brown, Scottish philosopher and poet (born 1778)^[20]
• 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)^[21]
• 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)^[22]
• November 12 – William Hayley, English poet and biographer (born 1745)^[23]
• Probable – Dionisie Eclesiarhul, Wallachian scribe, chronicler and illustrator (born c. 1740)

References

1. [Gilchrist, Octavius] (1820). "Some Account of John Clare, an Agricultural Labourer and Poet". The London Magazine.
2. Cox, Michael, ed. (2004). The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860634-6.
3. Robert Burns (1856). The life and works of Robert Burns, ed. by R. Chambers. Libr. ed. p. 2.
4. "Thomas Kendall", Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
5. SAJ Bradley (31 December 2008). N.F.S. Grundtvig, A Life Recalled: An Anthology of Biographical Source-Texts. Aarhus University Press. p. 436. ISBN 978-87-7934-007-7.
6. A. C. Grayling; Andrew Pyle; Naomi Goulder (28 June 2006). Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-84371-141-4.
7. "Anne Brontë | British author". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
8. Calendar of Spanish Anniversaries. Tardy publishing Company, Incorporated. 1935.
9. Sir John Tenniel. Bradbury, Agnew & Company. 1914. p. 1863.
10. Multatuli (1982). Max Havelaar, Or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 339. ISBN 978-0-87023-360-9.
11. Shattock, Joanne (1993). The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-19214-176-7.
12. Jerauld, Charlotte Ann Fillebrown; Bacon, Henry (1860). Poetry and prose (Public domain ed.). A. Tompkins. pp. 22–.
13. Edwin Francis Hatfield (1884). The Poets of the Church: A Series of Biographical Sketches of Hymn-writers with Notes on Their Hymns. A. D. F. Randolph. p. 133.
14. Daniel Greenleaf Thompson (1889). Herbert Spencer: His Life, Writings, and Philosophy. G.H. Ellis. p. 4.
15. Kuiper, Kathleen (1995). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield: Merriam-Webster. p. 508. ISBN 978-0-87779-042-6.
16. Charles Dudley Warner (1 July 2008). A Library of the World's Best Literature - Ancient and Modern - Vol.XLII (Forty-Five Volumes); Dictionary of Authors (A-J). Cosimo, Inc. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-60520-248-8.
17. V. Ė Kunina (1987). Frederick Engels: His Life and Work: Documents and Photographs. Progress. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-7147-2582-6.
18. Bibliografia Literatury Polskiej – Nowy Korbut (in Polish). Vol. 4: Oświecenie. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. 1966. pp. 451–456.
19. The Ladies' Monthly Museum. J.W.H. Payne. 1820. p. 53.
20. Trevor Royle (11 November 1984). Macmillan Companion to Scottish Literature. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-349-07587-4.
21. Wu, Duncan (2008). William Hazlitt: The First Modern Man. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.
22. Griswold, Rufus Wilmot (1858). The Female Poets of America (Public domain ed.). Ardent Media.
23. Thomas Dugdale (1830). England & Wales delineated, by T. Dugdale, assisted by W. Burnett. (Curiosities of Great Britain). p. 461.