This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1880.

Events

February – The journal Science is first published in the United States, with financial backing from Thomas Edison. April – Publication in France of Les Soirées de Médan, a collection of six Naturalist short stories set during the Franco-Prussian War by six authors who frequent Émile Zola's home, including Guy de Maupassant's first, "Boule de Suif", which launches his career. April 20 (O. S.: April 8) – At the Romanian Academy, Titu Maiorescu announces a reformed Romanian alphabet, adopted by a commission also comprising George Bariț and Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu. The rationalized spelling reflects ideas endorsed by Maiorescu since the 1860s, replacing the deep orthography favored by "Latinists". May – In the United States, the publishing business of Henry Oscar Houghton and George H. Mifflin is reconstructed as Houghton, Mifflin and Company. June 6 – Statue of Alexander Pushkin (d. 1837), sculpted by Alexander Opekushin, is unveiled in Strastnaya Square, Moscow. October – Henry James's novel The Portrait of a Lady begins serial publication in Macmillan's Magazine (U.K.) and The Atlantic Monthly (U.S.) December 15 – First performance of a play by Henrik Ibsen in English, The Pillars of Society (under the title Quicksands) at the Gaiety Theatre, London.

New books Fiction Henry Adams (anonymously) – Democracy: An American Novel Rhoda Broughton – Second Thoughts Wilkie Collins – Jezebel's Daughter Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield – Endymion Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Brothers Karamazov (99Братья Карамазовы, Brat'ya Karamazovy) Amelia Edwards – Lord Brackenbury Theodor Fontane Grete Minde Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg George Gissing – Workers in the Dawn Walter T. Gray (Metta Victoria Fuller Victor) – A Bad Boy's Diary Percy Greg – Across the Zodiac Anna Katharine Green – A Strange Disappearance Thomas Hardy – The Trumpet-Major Henry Kendall – Songs from the Mountains Alexander Kielland – Garman og Worse Pierre Loti – Le Mariage de Loti (as Rarahu) Ouida – Moths Louisa Parr – Adam and Eve Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin – The Golovlyov Family (Господа Головлёвы, Gospoda Golovlyovy) Anthony Trollope – The Duke's Children Mark Twain – A Tramp Abroad Giovanni Verga – Vita dei campi (The Life of the Fields, short stories, including "Cavalleria rusticana" – "Rustic chivalry") Lew Wallace – Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Émile Zola – Nana

Children and young people Evelyn Everett-Green (as H.F E.) – Tom Tempest's Victory Johanna Spyri – Heidi Jules Verne – The Steam House (La Maison à vapeur)

Drama Adolphe L'Arronge – The Lonei Household (Haus Lonei) Augustus Harris and Paul Meritt – The World Oscar Wilde – Vera; or, The Nihilists (privately printed)

Poetry Anne Evans (died 1870) – Poems and Music (with a memorial preface by Anne Isabella Thackeray)

Non-fiction Henry Charlton Bastian – The Brain as an Organ of Mind James Legge – The Religions of China Algernon Charles Swinburne – A Study of Shakespeare Charles Warren – The Temple or the Tomb. Giving further evidence in favour of the authenticity of the present site of the Holy Sepulchre

Births February 21 – Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (died 1952) February 27 – Angelina Weld Grimké, African-American playwright and poet (died 1958) March 1 – Lytton Strachey, English critic and biographer (died 1932)S. P. Rosenbaum, 'Strachey, (Giles) Lytton (1880–1932)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May 2006 March 4 – Channing Pollock, American playwright and critic (died 1946) March 13 – Frank Thiess, German writer (died 1977) March 21 – E. H. Young, English novelist (died 1949) March 30 – Seán O'Casey, Irish dramatist (died 1964) June 10 – Margit Kaffka, Hungarian novelist, short story writer and poet (died 1918) June 17 – Carl Van Vechten, American writer (died 1964) June 27 – Helen Keller, American writer and lecturer (died 1968) July 4 – Anne Beffort, Luxembourg literary writer and biographer (died 1966) July 10 – Greye La Spina, American writer (died 1969) August 5 – Ruth Sawyer, American children's writer and novelist (died 1970) August 15 – Anna Rüling, German journalist, the first known lesbian activist (died 1953) August 26 – Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet and dramatist (died 1918) September 12 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and English language scholar (died 1956) October 4 – Damon Runyon, American journalist and short-story writer (died 1946) October 17 – Vasile Cijevschi, Bessarabian Romanian soldier, journalist and short-story writer (died 1931) October 18 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Russian-born Zionist leader, novelist and poet (died 1940) November 1 – Grantland Rice, American sports writer (died 1954) November 6 – Robert Musil, Austrian novelist (died 1942) November 25 – Elsie J. Oxenham (Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley), English story writer for girls (died 1960) November 29 – N. D. Cocea, Romanian novelist, critic and journalist (died 1949) December 24 – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist and children's author (died 1938)

Deaths January 12 – Ida, Countess von Hahn-Hahn, German author (born 1805) February 12 – Karl Eduard von Holtei, German poet and dramatist (born 1798) February 17 – James Lenox, American bibliophile (born 1800) April 9 – Louis Edmond Duranty, French novelist and critic (born 1833) April 16 – Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy, Irish writer and barrister (born 1819) April 18 – Costache Aristia, Wallachian translator, poet, dramatist and actor (born 1800) May 2 – Eunice Hale Cobb, American writer, public speaker, and activist (born 1803) May 5 – Andrei Mocioni, Hungarian-Romanian journalist and literary patron (born 1812) May 6 – Ivan Surikov, Russian poet (born 1841) May 8 – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (born 1821)Edmund Gosse (1911) Flaubert, Gustave entry in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4 May 30 – James Planché, English dramatist (born 1796) June 7 – Karl Christian Planck, German philosopher (born 1819) July 7 – Lydia Maria Child, American writer and abolitionist (born 1802) July 12 – Tom Taylor, English dramatist and journalist (born 1817) September 23 – Geraldine Jewsbury, English novelist and woman of letters (born 1812) December 22 – George Eliot (Mary Anne Cross), English novelist (born 1819)

Awards Commander, First Class of the Order of St. Olav – Andreas Munch Newdigate Prize – Rennell Rodd, "Raleigh"

References

External links Published 1880 Books at Goodreads 1880 Books at Goodreads