See also: 1869 in literature, other events of 1870, 1871 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New Books

• The Caged Lion - Charlotte Mary Yonge
• The Eternal Husband - Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Lothair - Benjamin Disraeli
• Man and Wife - Wilkie Collins
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Charles Dickens
• An Old Fashioned Girl - Louisa May Alcott
• Red as a rose is she - Rhoda Broughton
• The Story of a Bad Boy - Thomas Bailey Aldrich
• The Terrible Sights of London - Thomas Archer
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
• The Vicar of Bullhampton - Anthony Trollope

Births

• March 5 - Frank Norris (d. 1902)
• June 25 - Erskine Childers (d. 1922)
• July 27 - Hilaire Belloc (d. 1953)
• December 18 - Saki (d. 1916)

Deaths

• June 9 - Charles Dickens, British novelist
• June 11 - William Gilmore Simms, author
• July 20 - Jules de Goncourt, Prix Goncourt
• November 4 - Comte de Lautreamont, French poet and writer
• December 5 - Alexandre Dumas, père, author

Awards