1880 in literature

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 – 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, 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 and The Atlantic Monthly
December 15 – First performance of a play by Henrik Ibsen in English, The Pillars of Society at the Gaiety Theatre, London.

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''

February 21 – Waldemar Bonsels, German writer
February 27 – Angelina Weld Grimké, African-American playwright and poet
March 1 – Lytton Strachey, English critic and biographer
March 4 – Channing Pollock, American playwright and critic
March 13 – Frank Thiess, German writer
March 21 – E. H. Young, English novelist
March 30 – Seán O'Casey, Irish dramatist
June 10 – Margit Kaffka, Hungarian novelist, short story writer and poet
June 17 – Carl Van Vechten, American writer
June 27 – Helen Keller, American writer and lecturer
July 4 – Anne Beffort, Luxembourg literary writer and biographer
July 10 – Greye La Spina, American writer
August 5 – Ruth Sawyer, American children's writer and novelist
August 15 – Anna Rüling, German journalist, the first known lesbian activist
August 26 – Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet and dramatist
September 12 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and English language scholar
October 4 – Damon Runyon, American journalist and short-story writer
October 17 – Vasile Cijevschi, Bessarabian Romanian soldier, journalist and short-story writer
October 18 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Russian-born Zionist leader, novelist and poet
November 1 – Grantland Rice, American sports writer
November 6 – Robert Musil, Austrian novelist
November 25 – Elsie J. Oxenham, English story writer for girls
November 29 – N. D. Cocea, Romanian novelist, critic and journalist
December 24 – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist and children's author