1916 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1916 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Events
- The Journal of Negro History is founded by Carter Godwin Woodson, the father of "Black History" and "Negro History Week."
- During the summer, 15-year-old Margaret MitchellMargaret MitchellMargaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was an American author and journalist. Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937 for her epic American Civil War era novel, Gone with the Wind, which was the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime.-Family:Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta,...
writes the manuscript to a novella called Lost LaysenLost LaysenLost Laysen is a novella written by Margaret Mitchell in 1916, although it was not published until 1996.Mitchell, who is best known as the author of Gone with the Wind, was believed to have only written one full book during her lifetime. However, when she was 15, she had written the manuscript to...
in two notebooks. She would later give the manuscript to a boyfriend and the book would remain lost until it was rediscovered in the mid-1990s and finally published in 1996. Meanwhile, Mitchell would go on to write Gone with the WindGone with the WindThe slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
.
New books
- Sherwood AndersonSherwood AndersonSherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
- Windy McPherson's Son - Henri BarbusseHenri BarbusseHenri Barbusse was a French novelist and a member of the French Communist Party.-Life:...
- Under FireUnder Fire (novel)Under Fire: The Story of a Squad by Henri Barbusse , was one of the first novels about World War I to be published... - L. Frank BaumL. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
- Rinkitink in OzRinkitink in OzRinkitink in Oz: Wherein is Recorded the Perilous Quest of Prince Inga of Pingaree and King Rinkitink in the Magical Isles that Lie Beyond the Borderland of Oz. is the tenth book in the Land of Oz series written by L. Frank Baum. Published on June 20, 1916, with full-color and black-and-white...
- - Mary LouiseThe Bluebird BooksThe Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with...
(as "Edith Van Dyne")
- - Mary Louise
- Adrien BertrandAdrien BertrandAdrien Bertrand was a French novelist whose short career was punctuated by a series of striking surrealist anti-war novels, written as Bertrand lay dying from complications involved in a wound he suffered whilst serving with the French Army in the First World War.-Biography:Bertrand was born in...
- L'Appel du sol - John Edward BruceJohn Edward BruceJohn Edward Bruce, also known as Bruce Grit or J. E. Bruce-Grit , born a slave in Maryland, United States, became a journalist, historian, writer, orator, civil rights activist and Pan-African nationalist...
- The Awakening of Hezekiah Jones - Edgar Rice BurroughsEdgar Rice BurroughsEdgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
- The Beasts of TarzanThe Beasts of TarzanThe Beasts of Tarzan is a novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the third in his series of books about the title character Tarzan. Originally serialized in All-Story Cavalier magazine in 1914, the novel was first published in book form by A. C... - Charlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform...
- With Her in OurlandWith Her in OurlandWith Her in Ourland: Sequel to Herland is a feminist novel written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and originally published in 1916 in Gilman's self-authored and edited periodical The Forerunner... - 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 Winged Victory - Louis HemonLouis HémonLouis Hémon , was a francophone writer best known for his novel Maria Chapdelaine.- Biography :He was born in Brest, France. In Paris, where he resided with his family, he was enrolled in the Montaigne and Louis-le-Grand secondary schools...
; Maria ChapdelaineMaria ChapdelaineMaria Chapdelaine is a novel written in 1913 by the French writer Louis Hémon, who was then residing in Quebec.-Adaptations:The novel has had three film adaptations, two French and one Québécois: in 1934, by Julien Duvivier, with Madeleine Renaud , and Jean Gabin , partly filmed in Péribonka; in... - 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...
- The Leatherwood God - James JoyceJames JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManA Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialised in the magazine The Egoist from 1914 to 1915, and published first in book format in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch, New York. The first English edition was published by the Egoist Press in February 1917... - Grace KingGrace KingGrace Elizabeth King was an American author of Louisiana stories, history, and biography, and a leader in historical and literary activities.-Biography:...
- The Pleasant Ways of St. Medard - Ring LardnerRing LardnerRinggold Wilmer Lardner was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical takes on the sports world, marriage, and the theatre.-Personal life:...
- You Know Me AlYou Know Me AlYou Know Me Al is a book by Ring Lardner, and, after, a nationally-syndicated comic strip which Lardner scripted, drawn by Will B. Johnstone and Dick Dorgan... - George MooreGeorge Moore (novelist)George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s...
- The Brook Kerith: A Syrian Story - Baroness OrczyBaroness OrczyBaroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orczi was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel...
- Leatherface - Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
- The Home and the WorldThe Home and the WorldThe Home and the World 1916 is a 1916 novel by Rabindranath Tagore. The book illustrates the battle Tagore had with himself, between the ideas of Western culture and revolution against the Western culture... - Booth TarkingtonBooth TarkingtonBooth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams...
- Seventeen: A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family Especially WilliamSeventeen (novel)Seventeen: A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family Especially William is a humorous novel by Booth Tarkington that gently satirizes first love, in the person of a callow 17-year-old, William Sylvanus Baxter. Seventeen takes place in a small city in the Midwestern United States shortly... - Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
- The Mysterious StrangerThe Mysterious StrangerThe Mysterious Stranger is the final novel attempted by the American author Mark Twain. It was worked on periodically from roughly 1890 up until 1910... - Mary Augusta WardMary Augusta WardMary Augusta Ward née Arnold; , was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward.- Early life:...
- England's Effort- Lady Connie
New drama
- Harley Granville-BarkerHarley Granville-BarkerHarley Granville-Barker was an English actor-manager, director, producer, critic and playwright....
- Farewell to the Theatre - Franz KafkaFranz KafkaFranz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
- The Warden of the TombThe Warden of the TombThe Warden of the Tomb is an expressionist play by Franz Kafka. Written in the winter of 1916-1917, it was published for the first time in Description of a Struggle.-Characters:...
(written) - Susan GlaspellSusan GlaspellSusan Keating Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actress, director, novelist, biographer and poet. She was a founding member of the Provincetown Players, one of the most important collaboratives in the development of modern drama in the United States...
- TriflesTriflesTrifles is a one-act play by Susan Glaspell. Her short story, "A Jury of Her Peers", was adapted from the play a year after its debut. It was first performed by the Provincetown Players at the Wharf Theatre in Provincetown, Massachusetts on August 8, 1916. In the original play, Glaspell played the... - Sophie TreadwellSophie TreadwellSophie Treadwell , was a leading American playwright and journalist of the first half of the 20th century. Among her prominent works are Machinal and Intimations For Saxophone...
- Claws
Poetry
- Robert FrostRobert FrostRobert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
- Mountain IntervalMountain IntervalMountain Interval is a 1916 poetry collection written by Robert Frost. Frost made several alterations in the sequencing of the collection and released the new edition in 1920.- Poems included :*"The Road Not Taken"*"Christmas Trees"... - Antonio MachadoAntonio MachadoAntonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98....
- Campos de Castilla (revised edition) - Carl SandburgCarl SandburgCarl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
- Chicago Poems - Gilbert WaterhouseGilbert WaterhouseGilbert Waterhouse , was an English architect and, later, war poet. He was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in World War I, while serving as a second lieutenant in the 2nd Bn Essex Regiment...
- Rail-Head and other poems (published posthumously)
Non-fiction
- 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...
- Our Girls: Their Work for the War - Albert EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
- RelativityGeneral relativityGeneral relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
Births
- March 4
- Giorgio BassaniGiorgio BassaniGiorgio Bassani was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual.-Biography:Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood with his mother Dora, father Enrico , brother Paolo, and sister Jenny...
, Italian author (d. 2000) - Hans EysenckHans EysenckHans Jürgen Eysenck was a German-British psychologist who spent most of his career in Britain, best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas...
, psychologist (d. 1997)
- Giorgio Bassani
- April 12 - Beverly ClearyBeverly ClearyBeverly Cleary is an American author. Educated at colleges in California and Washington, she worked as a librarian before writing children's books. Cleary has written more than 30 books for young adults and children. Some of her best-known characters are Henry Huggins, Ribsy, Beatrice Quimby, her...
, children's author - April 15 - Helene HanffHelene HanffHelene Hanff was an American writer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she is best known as the author of the book 84, Charing Cross Road, which became the basis for a stage play, , and film of the same name.- Career :...
, author (d. 1997) - May 21 - Harold RobbinsHarold RobbinsHarold Robbins was one of the best-selling American authors of all time. During his career, he wrote over 25 best-sellers, selling over 750 million copies in 32 languages....
(d. 1997) - May 28 - Walker PercyWalker PercyWalker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
(d. 1990) - July 14 - Natalia GinzburgNatalia GinzburgNatalia Ginzburg née Levi was an award-winning Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, for which she received the Strega Prize and Bagutta Prize...
, author (d. 1991) - September 13 - Roald DahlRoald DahlRoald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
, author (d. 1990) - September 17 - Mary StewartMary StewartMary Florence Elinor Stewart is a popular English novelist, best known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and the fantasy genre.-Career:...
, novelist - September 19 - Giles RomillyGiles RomillyGiles Samuel Bertram Romilly, , was a journalist, Nazi POW, brother of Esmond Romilly and nephew of Winston Churchill. He was educated at Wellington College and Oxford, and then served as a war correspondent in both the Spanish Civil War and in World War II...
, journalist (d. 1967) - October 3 - James HerriotJames HerriotJames Herriot was the pen name of James Alfred Wight, OBE, FRCVS also known as Alf Wight , an English veterinary surgeon and writer, who used his many years of experiences as a veterinarian to write a series of books of stories about animals and their owners...
, popular author of "vet" stories (d. 1995) - October 16 - David GascoyneDavid GascoyneDavid Gascoyne was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement.-Early life and Surrealism:...
, author and poet (d. 2001) - November 18 - Peter WeissPeter WeissPeter Ulrich Weiss was a German writer, painter, and artist of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays Marat/Sade and The Investigation and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance....
, German writer (d. 1982) - December 14 - Shirley JacksonShirley JacksonShirley Jackson was an American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years...
, author (d. 1965) - December 17 - Penelope FitzgeraldPenelope FitzgeraldPenelope Fitzgerald was a Booker Prize-winning English novelist, poet, essayist and biographer. In 2008, The Times included her in a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Early life:...
, novelist (d. 2000)
Deaths
- February 6 - Rubén DaríoRubén DaríoFélix Rubén García Sarmiento , known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo that flourished at the end of the 19th century...
, writer - February 28 - 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....
, writer - April 26 - Mário de Sá-CarneiroMário de Sá-CarneiroMário de Sá-Carneiro was a Portuguese poet and writer. He is one of the most well known of the "Geração D'Orpheu".-Life:...
, novelist and poet - May 3 - Patrick PearsePatrick PearsePatrick Henry Pearse was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916...
, poet and Irish nationalist leader - May 13 - Sholom AleichemSholom AleichemSholem Aleichem was the pen name of Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, a leading Yiddish author and playwright...
, Yiddish humorist - May 31 - Gorch FockGorch Fock (author)Gorch Fock [ɡɔʀx fɔk] was the pseudonym of the German author Johann Wilhelm Kinau . Other pseudonyms he used were Jakob Holst and Giorgio Focco....
, poet and novelist - July 1 - Gilbert WaterhouseGilbert WaterhouseGilbert Waterhouse , was an English architect and, later, war poet. He was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in World War I, while serving as a second lieutenant in the 2nd Bn Essex Regiment...
, war poet - August 8 - Lily BraunLily BraunLily Braun , born Amalie von Kretschmann, was a German feminist writer.- Life account :She was the daughter of the Prussian general Hans von Kretschmann...
, feminist writer - September 22 - 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...
, war poet - October 7 - James Whitcomb RileyJames Whitcomb RileyJames Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the Hoosier Poet and Children's Poet for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively...
, poet - October 25 - John TodhunterJohn TodhunterJohn Todhunter was an Irish poet and playwright who wrote seven volumes of poetry, and several plays.- Life :...
, poet and dramatist - November 14 - SakiSakiHector Hugh Munro , better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy...
, author - November 15 - Molly Elliot SeawellMolly Elliot SeawellMolly Elliot Seawell was an American writer.-Family:She was born as Mary Elliot Seawell into one of the older families of English language-speaking North America and one of the first families of Virginia...
, novelist - November 22 - 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...
, novelist - November 27 - Emile VerhaerenEmile VerhaerenEmile Verhaeren was a Belgian poet who wrote in the French language, and one of the chief founders of the school of Symbolism....
, Symbolist poet - date unknown - Olindo GuerriniOlindo GuerriniOlindo Guerrini was an Italian poet who also published under the pseudonyms Lorenzo Stecchetti and Argia Sbolenfi....
, poet - date unknown - Émile FaguetÉmile FaguetAuguste Émile Faguet was a French author and literary critic.Faguet was born at La Roche-sur-Yon, and educated at the École normale supérieure in Paris. After teaching for some time in La Rochelle and Bordeaux, he returned to Paris to act as assistant professor of poetry in the university. He...
, critic - date unknown - Petar KočićPetar KocicPetar Kočić was a Serb prose writer and politician from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was active in the Serbian National Organization with ties to the Mlada Bosna revolutionaries, after which he seceded with his closest supporters leading a wing under his leadership.Like both Borisav Stanković, who...
, poet
Awards
- Nobel Prize for Literature: Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam (SwedishSwedish languageSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
)