1820 in literature

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

Events

January 16 â Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery by "Northamptonshire peasant poet" John Clare is published in England by John Taylor.^[1]
April 22 â Walter Scott is created 1st baronet of Abbotsford in the County of Roxburgh in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.^[2]
September â 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 â 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 MÄori 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]

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

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 â Maurice, or the Fisher's Cot (written 1820 then lost, published 1997)

January 17 â Anne BrontÃ«, English novelist and poet (died 1849)^[11]
January 30 â ConcepciÃ³n Arenal, Spanish feminist writer and activist (died 1893)^[12]
February 28 â John Tenniel, English illustrator and cartoonist (died 1914)^[13]
March 2 â Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker), Dutch writer (died 1887)^[14]
March 17 â Jean Ingelow, English poet and novelist (died 1897)^[15]
March 30 â Anna Sewell, English novelist (died 1878)
April 4 â Mkrtich Khrimian, Armenian Catholicos, essayist and poet (died 1907)
April 16 â Charlotte A. Jerauld, American poet and story writer (died 1845)^[16]
April 26 â Alice Cary, American poet and short-story writer (died 1871)^[17]
April 27 â Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (died 1903)^[18]
June 21 â James Halliwell-Phillipps, English bibliophile (died 1889)
August 13 â Sir George Grove, English writer and lexicographer on music (died 1900)
September 2 â Lucretia Peabody Hale, American journalist and author (died 1900)^[19]
September 17 â Ãmile Augier, French dramatist (died 1889)^[20]
October 14 â John Harris, English poet (died 1884)
November 23 (December 5 N.S.) â Afanasy Fet, Russian lyric poet, essayist and short-story writer (died 1892)
November 28 â Friedrich Engels, German socialist writer (died 1895)^[21]

February 5 â William Drennan, Irish poet, radical and educationalist (born 1754)
February 23 â Alojzy FeliÅski, Polish poet (born 1771)^[22]
March 20 â Eaton Stannard Barrett, Irish satirical poet and novelist (born 1786)^[23]
April 2 â Thomas Brown, Scottish philosopher and poet (born 1778)^[24]
May 1 â Richmal Mangnall, English schoolbook writer (born 1769)
July 16 â William Hazlitt Sr., Irish writer, radical and Unitarian minister, father of William Hazlitt (born 1737)^[25]
August 23 â Michel de CubiÃ¨res, French poet, dramatist and historian (born 1752)
September 16 â Nguyá»n Du, Vietnamese poet (born 1766)
October 5 â Augustin Barruel, French Jesuit priest and writer (born 1741)
November 8 â Lavinia Stoddard, American poet and educationist (born 1787)^[26]
November 12 â William Hayley, English poet and biographer (born 1745)^[27]
Probable â Dionisie Eclesiarhul, Wallachian scribe, chronicler and illustrator (born c. 1740)