1820 in literature

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

Events

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

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''

February 5 – William Drennan, Irish poet, radical and educationalist
February 23 – Alojzy Feliński, Polish poet
March 20 – Eaton Stannard Barrett, Irish satirical poet and novelist
April 2 – Thomas Brown, Scottish philosopher and poet
May 1 – Richmal Mangnall, English schoolbook writer
July 16 – William Hazlitt Sr., Irish writer, radical and Unitarian minister, father of William Hazlitt
August 23 – Michel de Cubières, French poet, dramatist and historian
September 16 – Nguyễn Du, Vietnamese poet
October 5 – Augustin Barruel, French Jesuit priest and writer
November 8 – Lavinia Stoddard, American poet and educationist
November 12 – William Hayley, English poet and biographer
Probable – Dionisie Eclesiarhul, Wallachian scribe, chronicler and illustrator