1897 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1897 in literature involved some significant new books.
Events
- January 2 - Newspapers in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England erroneously report the death of Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
. It is believed that the rumors began when Twain's cousin had become ill. Twain makes his famous statement "the report of my death was an exaggeration." - July 25 - Writer Jack LondonJack LondonJohn Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
sails to join the Klondike Gold RushKlondike Gold RushThe Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
where he will write his first successful stories. - The comedy play Im weißen Rößl (The White Horse InnThe White Horse InnIm weißen Rößl is an operetta or musical comedy set in the picturesque Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria. It is about the head waiter of the White Horse Inn in St. Wolfgang who is desperately in love with the owner of the inn, a resolute young woman who at first only has eyes for one of her...
) by Oscar BlumenthalOscar BlumenthalOscar Blumenthal or Oskar Blumenthal was a German playwright and drama critic.-Biography:...
and Gustav KadelburgGustav KadelburgGustav Kadelburg was a Hungarian-German Jewish actor, dramatist, writer.He made his first appearance at Leipzig in 1869, and two years later played at the Wallnertheater in Berlin...
opens in BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. Decades later it will be turned into a popular and successful musical play. - Benito Pérez GaldósBenito Pérez GaldósBenito Pérez Galdós was a Spanish realist novelist. Considered second only to Cervantes in stature, he was the leading Spanish realist novelist....
is elected to the Real Academia EspañolaReal Academia EspañolaThe Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
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New books
- John Kendrick BangsJohn Kendrick BangsJohn Kendrick Bangs was an American author, editor and satirist.-Biography:He was born in Yonkers, New York. His father was a lawyer in New York City....
- Pursuit of the House-BoatPursuit of the House-BoatPursuit of the House-Boat is an 1897 novel by John Kendrick Bangs, and the second one to feature his Associated Shades take on the afterlife.-Plot summary:... - L. Frank BaumL. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
- Mother Goose in ProseMother Goose in ProseMother Goose in Prose is a collection of twenty-two children's stories based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes. It was the first children's book written by L. Frank Baum, and the first book illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. It was originally published in 1897 by Way and Williams of Chicago, and... - Richard Doddridge Blackmore - Dariel
- 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...
- Dear Faustina - Hall CaineHall CaineSir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE , usually known as Hall Caine, was a Manx author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. In his time he was exceedingly popular, and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his...
- The Christian - Kate ChopinKate ChopinKate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty , was an American author of short stories and novels. She is now considered by some to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century....
- A Night in Acadie - Joseph ConradJoseph ConradJoseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
- The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'The Nigger of the 'Narcissus': A Tale of the Sea is a novella by Joseph Conrad. Because of its quality compared to earlier works, some have described it as marking the start of Conrad's major period; others have placed it as the best work of his early period. John G... - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - Jerome
- George GissingGeorge GissingGeorge Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.-Early life:...
- The Whirlpool - Ellen GlasgowEllen GlasgowEllen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist who portrayed the changing world of the contemporary south.-Biography:...
- The Descendant - Sarah GrandSarah GrandSarah Grand was a British feminist writer active from 1873 to 1922. Her work revolved around the New Woman ideal.- Early Life and Influences of Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke:...
- The Beth Book - 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...
- The Well-BelovedThe Well-BelovedThe Well-Beloved is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1897.The main setting of the novel was the Isle of Slingers, a caricature of the Isle of Portland in Dorset, southern England.... - Henry JamesHenry JamesHenry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
-- The Spoils of PoyntonThe Spoils of PoyntonThe Spoils of Poynton is a novel by Henry James, first published under the title The Old Things as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1896 and then as a book in 1897. This half-length novel describes the struggle between Mrs. Gereth, a widow of impeccable taste and iron will, and her son Owen over...
- What Maisie KnewWhat Maisie KnewWhat Maisie Knew is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in the Chap-Book and in the New Review in 1897 and then as a book later in the same year. The story of the sensitive daughter of divorced and irresponsible parents, What Maisie Knew has great contemporary relevance as an...
- The Spoils of Poynton
- Fred T. JaneFred T. JaneJohn Fredrick Thomas Jane was the founding editor of reference books on warships and aircraft . He also once kidnapped Victor Grayson MP in a political stunt....
- To Venus in Five SecondsTo Venus in Five SecondsTo Venus in Five Seconds: An Account of the Strange Disappearance of Thomas Plummer, Pillmaker is a science fiction satire written by Fred T. Jane, the author of the original Jane's Fighting Ships and the founder of what would in time become the Jane's Information Group... - Rudyard KiplingRudyard KiplingJoseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
- Captains CourageousCaptains CourageousCaptains Courageous is an 1897 novel, by Rudyard Kipling, that follows the adventures of fifteen-year-old Harvey Cheyne Jr., the arrogant and spoiled son of a railroad tycoon... - Camille LemonnierCamille LemonnierAntoine Louis Camille Lemonnier was a Belgian writer, poet and journalist. He was a member of the Symbolist La Jeune Belgique group, but his best known works are realist. His first work was Salon de Bruxelles , a collection of art criticism...
- L'Homme en Amour - W. Somerset MaughamW. Somerset MaughamWilliam Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
- Liza of LambethLiza of LambethLiza of Lambeth was W. Somerset Maugham's first novel, which he wrote while working as a doctor at a hospital in Lambeth, then a working class district of London. It depicts the short life and death of Liza Kemp, an 18-year-old factory worker who lives together with her aging mother in Vere Street... - Robert Louis StevensonRobert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
- St. IvesSt. Ives (novel)St. Ives: Being The Adventures of a French Prisoner in England is an unfinished novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was completed in 1898 by Arthur Quiller-Couch.... - Bram StokerBram StokerAbraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
- DraculaDraculaDracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor... - 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...
- An Antarctic MysteryAn Antarctic MysteryAn Antarctic Mystery , is an 1897, two-volume novel by Jules Verne and is a response to Edgar Allan Poe's 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket... - Lew WallaceLew WallaceLewis "Lew" Wallace was an American lawyer, Union general in the American Civil War, territorial governor and statesman, politician and author...
- The Wooing of Malkatoon - H. G. WellsH. G. WellsHerbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
- The Invisible ManThe Invisible ManThe Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells published in 1897. Wells' novel was originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, and published as a novel the same year... - Richard MarshRichard Marsh (author)Richard Marsh was the pseudonym of the British author born Richard Bernard Heldmann. He is best known for his supernatural thriller The Beetle: A Mystery, which was published in the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula and was initially even more popular...
- The Beetle
New drama
- Gabriele D'AnnunzioGabriele D'AnnunzioGabriele D'Annunzio or d'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, and dramatist...
- Il Sogno di un mattino di primavera - Octave MirbeauOctave MirbeauOctave Mirbeau was a French journalist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, novelist, and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, while still appealing to the literary and artistic avant-garde...
- Les Mauvais bergers (The Bad Shepherds) - Edmond RostandEdmond RostandEdmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays provided an alternative to the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century...
- Cyrano de BergeracCyrano de Bergerac (play)Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life.... - Arthur SchnitzlerArthur SchnitzlerDr. Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.- Biography :Arthur Schnitzler, son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter , was born in Praterstraße 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian...
- La RondeLa Ronde (play)La Ronde is a 1900 play by Arthur Schnitzler. It scrutinizes the sexual morals and class ideology of its day through a series of encounters between pairs of characters . By choosing characters across all levels of society, the play offers social commentary on how sexual contact transgresses...
(not performed until 1921)
Births
- January 11 - Bernard DeVotoBernard DeVotoBernard Augustine DeVoto was an American historian and author who specialized in the history of the American West.- Life and work :He was born in Ogden, Utah...
, historian - January 19 - Natacha RambovaNatacha RambovaNatacha Rambova was an American silent film costume and set designer, artistic director, screenwriter, producer and occasional actress. Later in life she worked as a mildly successful fashion designer and Egyptologist....
, dramatist and wife of Rudolph ValentinoRudolph ValentinoRudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik... - March 23 - Béla HamvasBéla HamvasBéla Hamvas was a Hungarian writer, philosopher, and social critic. He was the first thinker to introduce the Traditionalist School of René Guénon to Hungary.-Biography:...
, philosopher - July 1 - Edward Wyndham TennantEdward Wyndham TennantLt. Edward Wyndham Tennant , was an English war poet, killed at the Battle of the Somme.He was the son of Edward Tennant, who became Lord Glenconner in 1911, and Pamela Wyndham, a writer, Lady Glenconner and later wife of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon...
, poet - July 15 - R. J. YeatmanR. J. YeatmanRobert Julian Yeatman was a British humorist who wrote for Punch. He is best known for the book 1066 and All That, 1930, ISBN 0-413-77270-5), a tongue-in-cheek guide to "all the history you can remember", which he wrote with W. C...
, humorous author - August 11
- Enid BlytonEnid BlytonEnid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
, children's author - Louise BoganLouise BoganLouise Bogan was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945.-Early years:...
, poet
- Enid Blyton
- September 25 - William FaulknerWilliam FaulknerWilliam Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
, novelist - October 22 - Marjorie FlackMarjorie FlackMarjorie Flack was an award-winning artist and writer of children's picture books. Flack was born in Greenport, Long Island, New York in 1897. She was best known for The Story about Ping , popularized by Captain Kangaroo, and for her stories of an insatiably curious Scottish terrier named Angus,...
, children's author - November 1 - Naomi MitchisonNaomi MitchisonNaomi May Margaret Mitchison, CBE was a Scottish novelist and poet. She was appointed CBE in 1981; she was also entitled to call herself Lady Mitchison, CBE since 5 October 1964 .- Childhood and family background :Naomi Margaret Haldane was...
, novelist and poet - November 7 - Herman J. MankiewiczHerman J. MankiewiczHerman Jacob Mankiewicz was an American screenwriter, who, with Orson Welles, wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane . Earlier, he was the Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and the drama critic for The New York Times and The New Yorker. Alexander Woollcott, said that Herman Mankiewicz was...
, screenwriter - November 8 - Dorothy DayDorothy DayDorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist and devout Catholic convert; she advocated the Catholic economic theory of Distributism. She was also considered to be an anarchist, and did not hesitate to use the term...
, journalist - December 3 - Kate O'BrienKate O'BrienKate O'Brien , was an Irish novelist and playwright.-Biography:Kathleen "Kate" Mary Louie O'Brien was born in Limerick City at the end of the 19th century. Following the death of her mother when she was five, she became a boarder at Laurel Hill convent...
, novelist and dramatist - date unknown - Iris TreeIris TreeIris Tree was an English poet, actress and artists' model, described as a bohemian, an eccentric, a wit and an adventuress....
, poet
Deaths
- March 7 - Harriet Ann JacobsHarriet Ann JacobsHarriet Ann Jacobs was an American writer, who escaped from slavery and became an abolitionist speaker and reformer...
, African-American writer - March 11 - Henry Drummond, evangelist and writer on natural history
- June 25 - Margaret Oliphant, writer
- July 28 - Étienne VacherotÉtienne VacherotÉtienne Vacherot was a French philosophical writer.-Life:He was born of peasant parentage at Torcenay, near Langres in the Haute-Marne département of France....
, philosophical writer - August 5 - James Hammond TrumbullJames Hammond TrumbullJames Hammond Trumbull was an American scholar and philologist.He was born in Stonington, Connecticut. He studied at Tracy's Academy in Norwich and at Yale University from 1838, but ill-health prevented his graduation, he was enrolled in 1850 and received an honorary LLD in 1871...
, philologist - August 8 - Jacob Burkhardt, Swiss historian (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...
) - August 25 - Émile Théodore Léon GautierÉmile Théodore Léon GautierÉmile Théodore Léon Gautier was a French literary historian.He was born at Le Havre, France. He was educated at the École des Chartes, and became successively head of the archives of the département of Haute-Marne and archivist at the Imperial Archives at Paris. In 1871 he became professor of...
, historian - September 17 - Ferenc PulszkyFerenc PulszkyFerenc Aurél Pulszky de Cselfalva et Lubócz was a Hungarian politician and writer.-Biography:He was born at Eperjes, now in Prešov in Slovakia. After studying law and philosophy at the high schools of his native town and Miskolc, he travelled abroad...
, political writer - October 24 - Francis Turner PalgraveFrancis Turner PalgraveFrancis Turner Palgrave was a British critic and poet.He was born at Great Yarmouth, the eldest son of Sir Francis Palgrave, the historian and his wife Elizabeth Turner, daughter of the banker Dawson Turner. His brothers were William Gifford Palgrave, Inglis Palgrave and Reginald Palgrave...
, anthologist - December 17 - Alphonse DaudetAlphonse DaudetAlphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
, novelist