1873 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1873 in literature involved some significant new books.
Events
- 3 March - The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock LawComstock LawThe Comstock Act, , enacted March 3, 1873, was a United States federal law which amended the Post Office Act and made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail, including contraceptive devices and information. In addition to banning contraceptives, this...
, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail. - Bertha KinskyBertha von SuttnerBertha Felicitas Sophie Freifrau von Suttner was an Austrian novelist, radical pacifist, and the first woman to be a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.-Biography:Suttner was born in Prague, Bohemia, the daughter of an impoverished Austrian Field Marshal,...
becomes governess to the Suttner family. - Charles M. Barnes opens his first store in Wheaton, IllinoisWheaton, IllinoisWheaton is an affluent community located in DuPage County, Illinois, approximately west of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Wheaton is the county seat of DuPage County...
, the genesis of Barnes & NobleBarnes & NobleBarnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
. - 18 December - Louisa May AlcottLouisa May AlcottLouisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
's family satire "Transcendental Wild OatsTranscendental Wild OatsTranscendental Wild Oats: A Chapter from an Unwritten Romance is a prose satire written by Louisa May Alcott, about her family's involvement with the Transcendentalist community Fruitlands in the early 1840s...
" is published in the Boston newspaper The Independent. - The children's periodical St. Nicholas MagazineSt. Nicholas MagazineSt. Nicholas Magazine was a popular children's magazine, founded by Scribner's in 1873. The first editor was Mary Mapes Dodge, who continued her association with the magazine until her death in 1905. Dodge published work by the country's best writers, including Louisa May Alcott, Francis Hodgson...
begins publication.
New books
- Louisa May AlcottLouisa May AlcottLouisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
- Work: A Story of ExperienceWork: A Story of ExperienceWork: A Story of Experience, first published in 1873, is a semi-autobiographical novel by Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, set in the times before and after the American Civil War.... - Ambrose BierceAmbrose BierceAmbrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
- The Fiend's Delight - Mary Elizabeth BraddonMary Elizabeth BraddonMary Elizabeth Braddon was a British Victorian era popular novelist. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret.-Life:...
- Publicans and Sinners - Rhoda BroughtonRhoda BroughtonRhoda Broughton was a novelist.-Life:Rhoda Broughton was born in Denbigh in North Wales on 29 November 1840. She was the daughter of the Rev. Delves Broughton youngest son of the Rev. Sir Henry Delves-Broughton, 8th baronet. She developed a taste for literature, especially poetry, as a young girl...
- Nancy
- Tales for Christmas Eve
- Bankim Chatterjee - The Poison Tree
- Wilkie CollinsWilkie CollinsWilliam Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...
- Miss or Mrs.?
- The New Magdalen
- Émile GaboriauÉmile GaboriauÉmile Gaboriau , was a French writer, novelist, and journalist, and a pioneer of modern detective fiction.- Life :Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Maritime...
- La Corde au cou - Thomas HardyThomas HardyThomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
- A Pair of Blue EyesA Pair of Blue EyesA Pair of Blue Eyes is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1873.The book describes the love triangle of a young woman, Elfride Swancourt, and her two suitors from very different backgrounds. Stephen Smith is a socially inferior but ambitious young man who adores her and with whom she shares a... - William Dean HowellsWilliam Dean HowellsWilliam Dean Howells was an American realist author and literary critic. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novel The Rise of...
- A Chance Acquaintance - George MacDonaldGeorge MacDonaldGeorge MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S...
- The History of Gutta-Percha Willie, the Working Genius - Karolina SvětláKarolína SvetláKarolina Světlá was a Czech female author of the 19th century. She was a representative to the literary May School. She married Professor Petr Mužák in 1852, who had taught her music. She also had an affair with Jan Neruda. She introduced Eliška Krásnohorská to literature and feminism...
- NemodlenecNemodlenecNemodlenec is a Czech novel, written by Karolina Světlá. It was first published in 1873.... - Jules VerneJules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
- Around the World in Eighty Days
New drama
- Henrik IbsenHenrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
- Emperor and GalileanEmperor and GalileanEmperor and Galilean is a play written by Henrik Ibsen. Although it is one of the writer’s lesser known plays, on several occasions Henrik Ibsen called Emperor and Galilean his major work...
(first published) and Love's ComedyLove's ComedyLove's Comedy is a comedy by Henrik Ibsen. It was first published on 31 December 1862. As a result of being branded an "immoral" work in the press, the Christiania Theatre would not dare to stage it at first...
(first performed) - Émile ZolaÉmile ZolaÉmile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
- Thérèse RaquinThérèse RaquinThérèse Raquin is the title of a novel and a play by the French writer Émile Zola. The novel was originally published in serial format in the journal L'Artiste and in book format in December of the same year.-Plot introduction:Thérèse Raquin tells the story of a young woman, unhappily married to...
Poetry
- Paul BourgetPaul BourgetPaul Charles Joseph Bourget , was a French novelist and critic.-Biography:He was born in Amiens in the Somme département of Picardie, France. His father, a professor of mathematics, was later appointed to a post in the college at Clermont-Ferrand, where Bourget received his early education...
- Au bord de la mer - Robert BrowningRobert BrowningRobert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
- Red Cotton Night-Cap CountryRed Cotton Night-Cap CountryRed Cotton Night-Cap Country, or Turf and Towers is a poem in blank verse by Robert Browning. It tells a story of sexual intrigue, religious obsession and violent death in contemporary Paris and Normandy, closely based on the true story of the death, supposedly by suicide, of the jewellery heir... - Tristan CorbièreTristan CorbièreTristan Corbière , born Édouard-Joachim Corbière, was a French poet born in Coat-Congar, Ploujean in Brittany, where he lived most of his life and where he died....
- only published work included in Les Amours Jaunes - Edmund GosseEdmund GosseSir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...
- On Viol and Flute - Arthur RimbaudArthur RimbaudJean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
- Une Saison en Enfer
Non-fiction
- Émile LittréÉmile LittréÉmile Maximilien Paul Littré was a French lexicographer and philosopher, best known for his Dictionnaire de la langue française, commonly called "The Littré".-Biography:Émile Littré was born in Paris...
- Dictionnaire de la langue française - Leslie StephenLeslie StephenSir Leslie Stephen, KCB was an English author, critic and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.-Life:...
- Essays on Free Thinking and Plain Speaking - Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
(with Charles WarnerCharles WarnerCharles Lickfold Warner , was an English actor.He was born in Kensington. He first appeared in 1861 at a special performances of Richelieu before Queen Victoria....
) - The Gilded Age: A Tale of TodayThe Gilded Age: A Tale of TodayThe Gilded Age: A Tale of Today is an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that satirizes greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America. Although not one of Twain's better-known works, it has appeared in more than one hundred editions since its original publication. Twain... - Charlotte Mary YongeCharlotte Mary YongeCharlotte Mary Yonge , was an English novelist, known for her huge output, now mostly out of print.- Life :Charlotte Mary Yonge was born in Otterbourne, Hampshire, England, on 11 August 1823 to William Yonge and Fanny Yonge, née Bargus. She was educated at home by her father, studying Latin, Greek,...
- Life of John Coleridge PattesonJohn Coleridge PattesonJohn Coleridge Patteson was an Anglican bishop and martyr.Patteson was educated at The King's School, Ottery St Mary, Eton and then Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1853 in the Church of England...
Births
- January 20 - Johannes Vilhelm JensenJohannes Vilhelm Jensen*Not to be confused with German author Wilhelm Jensen .Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, in Denmark always called Johannes V. Jensen, was a Danish author, often considered the first great Danish writer of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1944...
, Danish writer, Nobel prize winner (d. 19501950 in literatureThe year 1950 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Kazuo Shimada wins the "Mystery Writer Of Japan" award for his book Shakai-bu Kisha .*Jack Kerouac has his first novel published....
) - January 28 - ColetteColetteColette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
, writer (d. 19541954 in literatureThe year 1954 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Jack Kerouac reads Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible, which will influence him greatly.*John Updike graduates from Harvard with a thesis on George Herbert....
) - April 22 - Ellen GlasgowEllen GlasgowEllen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist who portrayed the changing world of the contemporary south.-Biography:...
(d. 19451945 in literatureThe year 1945 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 1 - The magazine Ebony is published for the first time.*Noel Coward's short play, Still Life, is adapted to become the film, Brief Encounter....
) - May 17 - Henri BarbusseHenri BarbusseHenri Barbusse was a French novelist and a member of the French Communist Party.-Life:...
(d. 19351935 in literatureThe year 1935 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* June 15 - W. H. Auden enters a marriage of convenience with Erika Mann.* July 30 - Allen Lane founds Penguin Books to publish the first mass market paperbacks in Britain....
) - June 16 - Lady Ottoline MorrellLady Ottoline MorrellThe Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers such as Aldous Huxley, Siegfried Sassoon, T. S. Eliot and D. H...
, patron of authors and artists (d. 19381938 in literatureThe year 1938 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The trilogy, U.S.A. by John Dos Passos, is published containing his three novels The 42nd Parallel , 1919 , and The Big Money ....
) - September 8 - Alfred JarryAlfred JarryAlfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side....
, dramatist (d. 19071907 in literatureThe year 1907 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* June 26 - Mark Twain receives an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Oxford University.*James Joyce meets Ettore Schmitz for the first time....
) - October 10 - George Cabot LodgeGeorge Cabot LodgeGeorge Cabot "Bay" Lodge , was an American poet of the late 19th and early-20th century.-Early life:Lodge was born in in Boston. His father was Henry Cabot Lodge, a politician. His mother was Anna Cabot Mills Davis Lodge...
, poet (d. 19091909 in literatureThe year 1909 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*L. Frank Baum - The Road to Oz** - Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work *André Billy - La Derive*René Boylesve - La Jeune Fille bien élevée...
) - December 7 - Willa CatherWilla CatherWilla Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
(d. 19471947 in literatureThe year 1947 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Diary of Anne Frank is published for the first time.*Jack Kerouac makes the journey which he will later chronicle in his book On the Road....
) - December 17 - Ford Madox FordFord Madox FordFord Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals, The English Review and The Transatlantic Review, were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English literature...
(d. 19391939 in literatureThe year 1939 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*December 25 - A Christmas Carol is read before a radio audience for the first time....
)
Deaths
- January 9 - Sigurd AbelSigurd AbelSigurd Abel was a German historian from Stuttgart.Abel visited the seminary of Maulbronn and the college of Stuttgart. He then followed the steps of his cousin Heinrich Friedrich Otto Abel and began studying history in Jena, Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin...
, historian (b. 18371837 in literatureThe year 1837 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* The Little, Brown and Company publishing house opens its doors.* First publication of the The United States Magazine and Democratic Review.-New books:...
) - January 10 - Francesco Dall'OngaroFrancesco Dall'OngaroFrancesco Dall'Ongaro was an Italian writer, poet and dramatist-Biography:Born in Mansuè, Veneto, Dall'Ongaro was educated for the priesthood, but abandoned his orders, and taking to political journalism founded the Favilla at Trieste in the Liberal interest.In 1848 he enlisted under Garibaldi,...
, poet and dramatist (b. 18081808 in literatureThe year 1808 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Opening of the Théâtre St. Philippe, New Orleans.*The first Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, established in 1732, is destroyed by fire. Rebuilding begins in December....
) - January 18 - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, author (b. 18031803 in literatureThe year 1803 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Novelist Mary Butt marries Captain Henry Sherwood, acquiring the surname by which she will become best known.-New books:...
) - February 1 - Gertrudis Gómez de AvellanedaGertrudis Gómez de AvellanedaGertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga was a 19th century Cuban writer.-Life:Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga, widely known as la Avellaneda, was born in Santa María de Puerto Príncipe , Cuba...
, novelist (b. 18141814 in literatureThe year 1814 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* In England, a revolutionary steam-powered press prints the Times newspaper at a rate of 1100 copies per hour.-New books:*Jane Austen — Mansfield Park...
) - February 7 - Sheridan Le FanuSheridan Le FanuJoseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era....
, writer (b. 18141814 in literatureThe year 1814 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* In England, a revolutionary steam-powered press prints the Times newspaper at a rate of 1100 copies per hour.-New books:*Jane Austen — Mansfield Park...
) - February 24 - Spiridon TrikoupisSpiridon TrikoupisSpiridon Trikoupis was a Greek statesman, diplomat, author and orator. He was the first Prime Minister of Greece and member of provisional governments of Greece since 1826....
, author and orator (b. 17881788 in literature-Events:*Ann Ward marries William Radcliffe, gaining the surname under which she will become known as a writer of Gothic novels.*Joseph Johnson and Thomas Christie found the Analytical Review.-New books:...
) - May 8 - John Stuart MillJohn Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
, philosopher (b. 18061806 in literature-New books:*Harriet Butler - Vensenshon*Catherine Cuthbertson - Santo Sebastiano*Charlotte Dacre - Zofloya*Maria Edgeworth - Leonora*Sophia Frances - Vivonio*William Herbert -The Spanish Outlaw...
) - May 22 - Alessandro ManzoniAlessandro ManzoniAlessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni was an Italian poet and novelist.He is famous for the novel The Betrothed , generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature...
, poet and novelist (b. 17851785 in literature-Events:* January 1 - First publication of the Daily Universal Register * Thomas Warton becomes Poet Laureate* The first steam powered cotton spinner was made by Matthew Bolton and James Watt....
) - May 27 - Pierre-Antoine LebrunPierre-Antoine LebrunPierre-Antoine Lebrun was a French poet.Lebrun was born in Paris. An Ode à la grande armée, mistaken at the time for the work of Écouchard Lebrun, attracted Napoleon's attention, and secured for the author a pension of 1200 francs. Lebrun's plays, once famous, are now forgotten...
, poet (b. 17851785 in literature-Events:* January 1 - First publication of the Daily Universal Register * Thomas Warton becomes Poet Laureate* The first steam powered cotton spinner was made by Matthew Bolton and James Watt....
) - August 15 - Edward Meredith CopeEdward Meredith CopeEdward Meredith Cope , English classical scholar, was born in Birmingham.He was educated at Ludlow and Shrewsbury schools and Trinity College, Cambridge, of which society he was elected fellow in 1842, having taken his degree in 1841 as senior classic...
, classical scholar (b. 18181818 in literatureThe year 1818 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Lord Byron begins writing Don Juan.* Series of lectures on poetry, drama, philosophy - Samuel Taylor Coleridge.-New books:*Jane Austen - Persuasion...
) - September 25 - Francesco Domenico GuerrazziFrancesco Domenico GuerrazziFrancesco Domenico Guerrazzi was an Italian writer and politician involved in the Italian risorgimento.-Biography:...
, novelist (b. 18041804 in literatureThe year 1804 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*John Keats' father dies from a fractured skull after falling from his horse.*Samuel Taylor Coleridge re-locates to Malta....
) - September 26 - Julius Roerich BenedixJulius Roerich BenedixJulius Roderich Benedix was a German dramatist and librettist, born in Leipzig, where he was educated there at Thomasschule....
, dramatist (b. 18111811 in literatureThe year 1811 in literature involved some significant new books, including Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.-New books:*Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility*Amelia Beauclerc - Eva of Cambria*Mary Brunton - Self-Control...
) - September 28 - Émile GaboriauÉmile GaboriauÉmile Gaboriau , was a French writer, novelist, and journalist, and a pioneer of modern detective fiction.- Life :Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Maritime...
, novelist (b. 18321832 in literatureThe year 1832 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The Houghton Mifflin publishing house founded in Boston, Massachusetts* Publishers begin the use of a paper jacket to wrap book covers...
) - October 4 - Margaret GattyMargaret GattyMargaret Gatty was an English writer of children's literature.Gatty was born in Burnham on Crouch, Essex, the daughter of the Rev. Alexander John Scott, D.D., a Royal Navy chaplain, who served under, and was the trusted friend of, Lord Nelson on board the HMS Victory before and during the Battle...
, children's author (b. 18091809 in literatureThe year 1809 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Samuel Taylor Coleridge founds The Friend .*On February 24, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is destroyed by fire....
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