1923 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1923 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Events
- Fictional detective Lord Peter WimseyLord Peter WimseyLord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...
makes his first appearance in print. - Barry Vincent JacksonBarry Vincent JacksonSir Barry Vincent Jackson, , was a distinguished theatre director and the founder of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.-Life and career:He was the son of George Jackson of Birmingham and was educated privately....
's production of CymbelineCymbelineCymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
is the first modern-dress production of a Shakespearan work. - A riotRiotA riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...
breaks out at the re-staging of Tristan TzaraTristan TzaraTristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
's DadaDadaDada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
ist play The Gas Heart on 6 July at the Théâtre Michel, Paris, between those artists aligned with André BretonAndré BretonAndré Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
and those aligned with Tzara; the conflict leads to a permanent split in the Dada movement and the founding of SurrealismSurrealismSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
as an alternative.
New fiction
- 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,...
- Many MarriagesMany MarriagesMany Marriages is a 1923 Sherwood Anderson novel, largely plotless and considered by many to be the beginning of his decline as a writer. The novel did have its champions, however, F. Scott Fitzgerald among them.... - Arnold BennettArnold Bennett- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
- Riceyman StepsRiceyman StepsRiceyman Steps is the title of a novel by British novelist Arnold Bennett, first published in 1923 and winner of that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.-Background:... - Max BrandMax BrandFrederick Faust, aka Max Brand|thumb|rightFrederick Schiller Faust was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary Westerns. Faust wrote mostly under pen names, but today is primarily known by only one, Max Brand...
- Seven Trails - 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:...
- Tarzan and the Golden LionTarzan and the Golden LionTarzan and the Golden Lion is a novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the ninth in his series of books about the title character Tarzan. It was first published as a seven part serial in Argosy All-Story Weekly beginning in December 1922; and then as a complete novel by A.C. McClurg & Co... - 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 Woman of Knockaloe - 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...
- A Lost LadyA Lost LadyWilla Cather's A Lost Lady was first published in 1923. It tells the story of Marian Forrester and her husband, Captain Daniel Forrester who live in the Western town of Sweet Water, along the Transcontinental Railroad.-Plot summary:... - Agatha ChristieAgatha ChristieDame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
- The Murder on the Links - 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...
- Le Blé en herbeLe Blé en herbeLe Blé en herbe is the title of a novel written by French writer Colette in 1923.The book was written during the vacation of the writer on her property Roz-Ven in Saint-Coulomb, between Saint-Malo and Cancale.-Plot summary:... - 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 RoverThe Rover (novel)thumb|First-edition cover The Rover is the last complete novel by Joseph Conrad, written between 1921 and 1922. It was first published in 1923.-Plot summary:... - Marie CorelliMarie CorelliMarie Corelli was a British novelist. She enjoyed a period of great literary success from the publication of her first novel in 1886 until World War I. Corelli's novels sold more copies than the combined sales of popular contemporaries, including Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G...
- Love and the Philosopher - Zona GaleZona GaleZona Gale was an American author and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, in 1921.-Biography:Gale was born in Portage, Wisconsin, which she often used as a setting in her writing...
- Faint Perfume - Jaroslav HašekJaroslav HašekJaroslav Hašek was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer and socialist anarchist best known for his novel The Good Soldier Švejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures, which has been translated into sixty...
- The Good Soldier ŠvejkThe Good Soldier ŠvejkThe Good Soldier Švejk , also spelled Schweik or Schwejk, is the abbreviated title of a unfinished satirical/dark comedy novel by Jaroslav Hašek. It was illustrated by Josef Lada and George Grosz after Hašek's death... - Ernest HemingwayErnest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
- Three Stories and Ten PoemsThree Stories and Ten PoemsThree Stories and Ten Poems was the first short story collection by Ernest Hemingway; it was also his first published work. The collection was privately published in a run of 300 copies by Robert McAlmon's "Contact Publishing" in Paris, in 1923.... - Georgette HeyerGeorgette HeyerGeorgette Heyer was a British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer...
- The Great RoxhytheThe Great RoxhytheThe Great Roxhythe is a novel written by Georgette Heyer. The book opens in 1668 & closes in 1685, and concerns the misadventures of a fictional spy loyal to Charles II.... - Aldous HuxleyAldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
- Antic HayAntic HayAntic Hay is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. The story takes place in London, and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the sad and turbulent times following the end of World War I.... - D. H. LawrenceD. H. LawrenceDavid Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
- KangarooKangaroo (novel)Kangaroo is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1923. It is set in Australia.-Description:Kangaroo is an account of a visit to New South Wales by an English writer named Richard Lovat Somers, and his German wife Harriet, in the early 1920s... - Hugh LoftingHugh LoftingHugh John Lofting was a British author, trained as a civil engineer, who created the character of Doctor Dolittle — one of the classics of children's literature.-Personal life:...
- The Voyages of Doctor DolittleThe Voyages of Doctor DolittleThe Voyages of Doctor Dolittle was the second of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle books to be published, coming out in 1922. It is nearly four times longer than its predecessor and the writing style is pitched at a more mature audience. The scope of the novel is vast; it is divided into six parts and... - Felix SaltenFelix SaltenFelix Salten was an Austrian author and critic in Vienna. His most famous work is Bambi .-Life:...
- Bambi, A Life in the WoodsBambi, A Life in the WoodsBambi, a Life in the Woods, originally published in Austria as Bambi. Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde, is a 1923 Austrian novel written by Felix Salten and published by Paul Zsolnay Verlag... - Dorothy L. SayersDorothy L. SayersDorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...
- Whose Body?Whose Body?Whose Body? is a 1923 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, which introduced the character of Lord Peter Wimsey.-Plot introduction:Lord Peter is intrigued by the sudden appearance of a naked body in the bath of an architect, and investigates... - James StephensJames Stephens (author)James Stephens was an Irish novelist and poet.James Stephens wrote many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales. His retellings are marked by a rare combination of humor and lyricism...
- Deirdre - Wallace StevensWallace StevensWallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
- HarmoniumHarmoniumA harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion... - Italo SvevoItalo SvevoAron Ettore Schmitz , better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo, was an Italian writer and businessman, author of novels, plays, and short stories.- Biography :...
- La Coscienza di ZenoLa Coscienza di ZenoZeno's Conscience is a novel by Italian writer Italo Svevo. The main character is Zeno Cosini and the book is the fictional character's memoirs that he keeps at the insistence of his psychiatrist. Throughout the novel, we learn about his father, his business, his wife, and his tobacco habit. The... - Alexei TolstoyAlexei TolstoyAlexei Tolstoy may refer to:* Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian poet, novelist and playwright* Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, , Russian writer and playwright who specialized in science fiction and historical novels...
- AelitaAelita (novel)Aelita also known as Aelita or, The Decline of Mars is a 1923 science fiction novel by Russian author Alexei Tolstoy.-Plot summary:... - Jean ToomerJean ToomerJean Toomer was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. His first book Cane is considered by many as his most significant.-Early life:...
- CaneCane (novel)Cane is a 1923 novel by noted Harlem Renaissance author Jean Toomer. The novel is structured as a series of vignettes revolving around the origins and experiences of African Americans in the United States. The vignettes alternate in structure between narrative prose, poetry, and play-like... - 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...
- Men Like GodsMen Like GodsMen Like Gods is a novel written in 1923 by H. G. Wells. It features a utopian parallel universe.-Plot summary :The hero of the novel, Mr. Barnstaple, is a depressive journalist working for a newspaper called the Liberal. At the beginning of the story, Barnstaple, as well as a few other... - Margaret WilsonMargaret Wilson (writer)Margaret Wilson was an American novelist. She was awarded the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for The Able McLaughlins.-Life:...
-The Able McLaughlinsThe Able McLaughlinsThe Able McLaughlins is a 1923 novel by Margaret Wilson first published by Harper & Brothers. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1924.It won the Harper Prize Novel Contest for 1922-23, the first time the prize was awarded.... - P. G. WodehouseP. G. WodehouseSir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
- The Inimitable JeevesThe Inimitable JeevesThe Inimitable Jeeves is a semi-novel collecting Jeeves stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, on May 17, 1923, and in the United States by George H...
- Leave It to PsmithLeave it to PsmithLeave it to Psmith is a comic novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on November 30, 1923 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on March 14, 1924 by George H. Doran, New York. It had previously been serialised, in the Saturday Evening Post in the U.S...
- The Inimitable Jeeves
New drama
- Bertolt BrechtBertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
- In The Jungle of CitiesIn The Jungle of CitiesIn The Jungle of Cities is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. Written between 1921 and 1924, it received its first theatrical production under the title In the Jungle at the Residenztheater in Munich, opening on 9 May 1923. This production was directed by Erich Engel, with... - Georg KaiserGeorg KaiserFriedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, was a German dramatist.-Biography:Kaiser was born at Magdeburg....
- Side by Side - Elmer RiceElmer RiceElmer Rice was an American playwright. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1929 play, Street Scene.-Early years:...
- The Adding MachineThe Adding MachineThe Adding Machine is a 1923 play by Elmer Rice; it has been called "... a landmark of American Expressionism, reflecting the growing interest in this highly subjective and nonrealistic form of modern drama." The story focuses on Mr. Zero, an accountant at a large, faceless company. After 25 years... - Jules RomainsJules RomainsJules Romains, born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule , was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement...
- Knock - George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
- Saint JoanSaint Joan (play)Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts... - Ernst TollerErnst TollerErnst Toller was a left-wing German playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays and serving as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, for six days.- Biography :...
- Hinkemann - Sergei TretyakovSergei TretyakovSergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov was a Russian constructivist writer, playwright and special correspondent for Pravda. He graduated 1916 from the department of law at Moscow University...
- Do You Hear, Moscow? and Earth in Turmoil - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - The Madman and the Nun and The Crazy Locomotive
Poetry
- E. E. CummingsE. E. CummingsEdward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...
- Tulips and ChimneysTulips and ChimneysTulips and Chimneys is a collection of poetry by E. E. Cummings, published in 1923 . This collection is the first dedicated exclusively to Cummings' poetry; his work had been published previously alongside others' in Eight Harvard Poets.Though most now know the title to be Tulips & Chimneys ,... - 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...
- New HampshireNew Hampshire (book)New Hampshire is a 1923 Pulitzer Prize-winning volume of poems written by Robert Frost. The book included several of Frost's most well-known poems, including "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and "Fire and Ice". Illustrations for the collection were provided by... - Sukumar RaySukumar RaySukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
- Abol TabolAbol TabolAbol tabol ; ; is a collection of Bengali children's poems and rhymes composed by Sukumar Ray, first published on 19 September 1923 by U. Ray and Sons... - William Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
- Go GoGo goGo-go is a subgenre associated with funk that originated in the Washington, D.C., area during the mid- 1960s to late-1970s. It remains primarily popular in the area as a uniquely regional music style...
- Spring and AllSpring and AllWilliam Carlos Williams's Spring and All is a volume published in 1923 by Robert McAlmon's Contact Publishing Co. It is a hybrid work made up of alternating sections of prose and free verse...
- Go Go
Non-fiction
- Vladimir ArsenyevVladimir ArsenyevVladimir Klavdiyevich Arsenyev was a Russian explorer of the Far East who recounted his travels in a series of books - "По Уссурийскому Краю" and "Дерсу Узала" - telling of his military journeys to the Ussuri basin with Dersu Uzala, a native hunter, from 1902 to 1907...
- Dersu UzalaDersu UzalaDersu Uzala is the title of a 1923 book by the Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev.-Plot:Arsenyev's book tells of his travels in the Ussuri basin in the Russian Far East. Dersu was the name of a Nanai hunter who acted as a guide for Arsenyev's surveying crew from 1902 to 1907, and saved them from... - Le CorbusierLe CorbusierCharles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
- Vers une architectureToward an ArchitectureVers une architecture, translated into English as Toward an Architecture and commonly known as Towards a New Architecture is a collection of essays written by Le Corbusier , advocating for and exploring the concept of modern architecture...
(Toward an Architecture) - Khalil GibranKhalil GibranKhalil Gibran Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān,Jibrān Khalīl Jibrān, or Jibrān Xalīl Jibrān; Arabic , January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) also known as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer...
- The ProphetThe Prophet (book)The Prophet is a book of 26 poetic essays written in English by the Lebanese artist, philosopher and writer Kahlil Gibran. It was originally published in 1923 by Alfred A. Knopf. It is Gibran's best known work... - Robert HenriRobert HenriRobert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...
- The Art Spirit - Max WeberMax WeberKarl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
- WirtschaftsgeschichteWirtschaftsgeschichteMax Weber's Wirtschaftsgeschichte was composed by his students from lecture notes shortly after his death. In his General Economic History, Weber creates an institutional theory of the rise of capitalism in the west. Unlike in his Protestant ethic, religion is given a minor role...
Births
- January 6 - Jacobo TimermanJacobo TimermanJacobo Timerman was an Argentine publisher, journalist, and author who was persecuted and honored for confronting the atrocities of the Argentine military regime's Dirty War...
, Argentine writer (d. 1999) - January 10 - Ingeborg DrewitzIngeborg DrewitzIngeborg Drewitz was a German writer.Drewitz graduated in 1941 from the Königin-Luise-Schule in Berlin-Friedenau, and took a degree in German literature, history, and philosophy, followed by a doctorate on 20 April 1945, at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University...
, writer (d. 1986) - January 16 - Anthony HechtAnthony HechtAnthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.-Early years:Hecht was born in New York...
, American poet (d. 2004) - January 29 - Paddy ChayefskyPaddy ChayefskySidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky , was an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for Best Screenplay....
, American writer (d. 1981) - January 31 - Norman MailerNorman MailerNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, American writer & journalist (d. 2007) - February 2 - James DickeyJames DickeyJames Lafayette Dickey was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1966.-Early years:...
, American poet & author (d. 1997) - February 9 - Brendan BehanBrendan BehanBrendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army.-Early life:...
, Irish author (d. 1964) - March 27 - Louis SimpsonLouis SimpsonLouis Aston Marantz Simpson is an American poet. He won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his work At The End Of The Open Road.-Life:...
, Jamaican-born American poet - March 30 - Milton AcornMilton AcornMilton James Rhode Acorn , nicknamed The People's Poet by his peers, was a Canadian poet, writer, and playwright. He was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island....
, Canadian poet, writer, & playwright (d. 1986) - May 1 - Joseph HellerJoseph HellerJoseph Heller was a US satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His best known work is Catch-22, a novel about US servicemen during World War II...
, American novelist (d. 1999) - May 21 - Dorothy HewettDorothy HewettDorothy Coade Hewett was an Australian feminist poet, novelist, librettist and playwright. She was also a member of the Communist Party of Australia, though she clashed on many occasions with the party's leadership.-Early life:Hewett was born in Perth and was brought up on a sheep and wheat farm...
, Australian poet, playwright & novelist (d. 2002) - June 24 - Yves BonnefoyYves BonnefoyYves Bonnefoy is a French poet and essayist. Bonnefoy was born in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, the son of a railroad worker and a teacher....
, French poet & essayist - July 2 - Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet & essayist
- July 17 - James PurdyJames PurdyJames Otis Purdy was a controversial American novelist, short story-writer, poet, and playwright who, since his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. He has been praised by...
, American writer - September 13 - Miroslav HolubMiroslav HolubMiroslav Holub was a Czech poet and immunologist.Miroslav Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an Immunologist, writing many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect. His work is almost always unrhymed, so lends itself easily to translation...
, Czech poet (d. 1998) - October 5 - Stig DagermanStig DagermanStig Dagerman was a Swedish author and journalist.Stig Dagerman was one of the most prominent Swedish authors during the 1940s...
, Swedish author & journalist (d. 1954) - October 15 - Italo CalvinoItalo CalvinoItalo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
, Italian writer (d. 1985) - October 24 - Denise LevertovDenise Levertov-Early life and influences:Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Essex.Couzyn, Jeni Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, p74 Her mother, Beatrice Spooner-Jones Levertoff, came from a small mining village in North Wales...
, British-born American poet (d. 1997) - November 20 - Nadine GordimerNadine GordimerNadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...
, South African writer
Deaths
- January 3 - Jaroslav HašekJaroslav HašekJaroslav Hašek was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer and socialist anarchist best known for his novel The Good Soldier Švejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures, which has been translated into sixty...
, Czech novelist (b. 1883) - January 9 - Katherine MansfieldKatherine MansfieldKathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
, New Zealand writer (b. 1888) - February 1 - Ernst TroeltschErnst TroeltschErnst Troeltsch was a German Protestant theologian and writer on philosophy of religion and philosophy of history, and an influential figure in German thought before 1914...
, German theologian (b. 1865) - February 8 - Bernard BosanquetBernard Bosanquet (philosopher)Bernard Bosanquet was an English philosopher and political theorist, and an influential figure on matters of political and social policy in late 19th and early 20th century Britain...
, English philosopher & political theorist (b. 1848) - June 10 -
- Louis CouperusLouis CouperusLouis Marie-Anne Couperus was a Dutch novelist and poet during the Belle Époque. There is a wide variety of genres in his oeuvre, which contains poetry, fairy tales, psychological novels, and historical novels...
, Dutch novelist & poet (b. 1863) - Pierre LotiPierre LotiPierre Loti was a French novelist and naval officer.-Biography:Loti's education began in his birthplace, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime. At the age of seventeen he entered the naval school in Brest and studied at Le Borda. He gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906...
, French novelist & travel writer (b. 1850)
- Louis Couperus
- June 22 - Morris RosenfeldMorris RosenfeldMorris Rosenfeld was a Yiddish poet....
, Yiddish poet (b. 1862) - June 24 - Edith SödergranEdith SödergranEdith Irene Södergran was a Swedish-speaking Finnish poet. She was one of the first modernists within Swedish-language literature and her influences came from French Symbolism, German expressionism and Russian futurism. At the age of 24 she released her first collection of poetry entitled Dikter...
, Finnish-Swedish poet (b. 1892) - August 24 - Kate Douglas WigginKate Douglas WigginKate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator and author of children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878...
, American children's author (b. 1856) - October 6 - Oscar BrowningOscar BrowningOscar Browning was an English writer, historian, and educational reformer. His greatest achievement was the cofounding, along with Henry Sidgwick, of the Cambridge University Day Training College in 1891...
, English historian (b. 1837) - December 1 - Virginie LovelingVirginie LovelingVirginie Loveling was a Flemish author of poetry, novels, essays and children's stories. She also wrote under the pseudonym W.E.C Walter.- Biography :...
, Flemish poet & novelist (b. 1836) - December 4 - Maurice BarrèsMaurice BarrèsMaurice Barrès was a French novelist, journalist, and socialist politician and agitator known for his nationalist and antisemitic views....
, French novelist & journalist (b. 1862) - date unknown
- Henry BradleyHenry BradleyHenry Bradley was a British philologist and lexicographer who succeeded James Murray as senior editor of the Oxford English Dictionary .-Early life:...
, philologist and lexicographer (b. 1845) - George Wharton JamesGeorge Wharton JamesGeorge Wharton James was a prolific popular lecturer and journalist, writing more than 40 books and many articles and pamphlets on California and the American Southwest....
, journalist (b. 1858)
- Henry Bradley
Awards
- James Tait Black Memorial PrizeJames Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for fiction: Arnold BennettArnold Bennett- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
, Riceyman StepsRiceyman StepsRiceyman Steps is the title of a novel by British novelist Arnold Bennett, first published in 1923 and winner of that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.-Background:... - James Tait Black Memorial PrizeJames Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for biography: Sir Ronald Ross, Memoirs, Etc. - Newbery MedalNewbery MedalThe John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
for children's literatureChildren's literatureChildren's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
: Hugh LoftingHugh LoftingHugh John Lofting was a British author, trained as a civil engineer, who created the character of Doctor Dolittle — one of the classics of children's literature.-Personal life:...
, The Voyages of Doctor DolittleThe Voyages of Doctor DolittleThe Voyages of Doctor Dolittle was the second of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle books to be published, coming out in 1922. It is nearly four times longer than its predecessor and the writing style is pitched at a more mature audience. The scope of the novel is vast; it is divided into six parts and... - Nobel Prize for Literature: William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
- Pulitzer Prize for DramaPulitzer Prize for DramaThe Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
: Owen DavisOwen DavisOwen Gould Davis, Sr. was an American dramatist. He received the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1923 play Icebound, and penned hundreds of plays and scripts for radio and film. Before the First World War, he also wrote racy sketches of New York high jinks and low life for the Police Gazette...
, Icebound - Pulitzer Prize for PoetryPulitzer Prize for PoetryThe Pulitzer Prize in Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. However, special citations for poetry were presented in 1918 and 1919.-Winners:...
: Edna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...
: The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver: A Few Figs from Thistles: Eight Sonnets in American Poetry, 1922. A Miscellany - Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: 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...
- One of OursOne of OursOne of Ours is a novel by Willa Cather that won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize. It tells the story of the life of Claude Wheeler, a Nebraska native around the turn of the 20th century. The son of a successful Midwestern farmer and an intensely pious mother, he is guaranteed a comfortable livelihood...