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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1780.

Events

September/October – Richard Brinsley Sheridan is elected to Parliament in the 1780 British general election.
December – Karl von Marinelli becomes head of the Schultz theatre company (Schultzsche Gesellschaft) of Baden.^[1]
unknown dates
- Det Dramatiske Selskab in Christiania, an amateur acting troupe, is formed and gives the first regular stage performances in Norway.
- A legal deposit law entitles the Załuski Library in Warsaw to a copy of every book published in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.^[2]

New books

Mrs. Trimmer – An Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature, and Reading the Holy Scriptures. Adapted to the Capacities of Children

Hannah Cowley – The Maid of Aragon
George Crabbe – The Candidate
Herbert Croft – The Abbey of Kilkhampton; or, Monumental Records for the Year 1980 (satire)
Susannah Harrison – Songs in the Night
William Hayley – An Essay on History
Anna Seward – Elegy on Captain Cook
Christoph Martin Wieland – Oberon

William Beckford – Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters
Jacob Bryant – An Address to Dr. Priestley
Edmund Burke – Speech on Oeconomical Reformation
Giacomo Casanova – Opuscoli miscellanei (containing Il duello and Lettere della nobil donna Silvia Belegno alla nobil donzella Laura Gussoni)
William Combe – Letters of the Late Lord Lyttelton (forgeries)
Martin Madan – Thelyphthora (in favor of polygamy)
Johannes von Müller – Geschichten der Schweizer
John Nichols – A Select Collection of Poems
Richard Price – An Essay on the Population of England
Joseph Priestley – Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever
William Shakespeare – Supplement to the Edition of Shakespeare's Plays Published in 1778 by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens (by Edmond Malone)
Horace Walpole – On Modern Gardening
John Wesley – Reflections on the Rise and Progress of the American Rebellion
Arthur Young – A Tour in Ireland

March 6 – Lucy Barnes, American writer (died 1809)
March 10 – Frances Trollope, English novelist (died 1863)
June 1 – Carl von Clausewitz, German soldier and military historian and theorist (died 1831)
June 3 – William Hone, English satirist (died 1842)
August 14 – George Croly, Irish poet, novelist and historian (died 1860)
November 27 – William Cardell, American grammarian and writer of boys' stories (died 1828)^[3]
December 20 – John Wilson Croker, Irish statesman and author (died 1857)
December 26 – Mary Somerville, Scottish science writer and polymath (died 1872)
probable
- Maria Elizabeth Budden, English novelist and writer of didactic children's books (died 1832)
- Anna Maria Porter, English poet and novelist (died 1832)

January 31 – Jonathan Carver, American explorer and writer (born 1710)
February 14 – William Blackstone, English jurist and legal author (born 1723)
February 17 – Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (born 1706)
April 29 – Claude Joseph Dorat, "Le Chevalier Dorat", French poet and novelist (born 1734)
May 11 – Nicolas Fernández de Moratín, Spanish literary reformer (born 1737)
July 14 – Charles Batteux, French philosopher (born 1713)^[4]
September 4 – Sir John Fielding, English social reformer and half-brother of Henry Fielding (born 1721)
September 8 – Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, French novelist (born 1711)
September 23 – Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand, French salon hostess (born 1697)
December 22 – James Harris, English grammarian (born 1709)