See also: 1879 in literature, other events of 1880, 1881 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi is published in Italy.

New books

• Ayala's Angels - Anthony Trollope
• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ - Lew Wallace
• The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Demon Of Cawnpore - Jules Verne
• Endymion - Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
• Heidi's Formative Years - Johanna Spyri
• Jezebel's Daughter - Wilkie Collins
• Moths - Ouida
• Nana - Emile Zola
• Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi
• Second thoughts - Rhoda Broughton
• A Tramp Abroad - Mark Twain
• Workers in the Dawn - George Gissing
• Democracy: An American Novel - Henry Adams (published anonymously)

Births

• February 21 - Waldemar Bonsels, writer (+ 1952)
• March 13 - Frank Thiess , writer (+ 1977)
• March 30 - Sean O'Casey, dramatist (+ 1964)
• June 17 - Carl Van Vechten, writer (+ 1964)
• November 6 - Robert Musil, novelist (+ 1942)

Deaths

• July 7 - Lydia Child, writer, activist
• September 23 – Geraldine Jewsbury, British author
• December 22 - George Eliot, author

Awards