1925 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1925 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Events
- April: F Scott Fitzgerald and 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...
meet in the Dingo Bar on rue Delambre, in the MontparnasseMontparnasseMontparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail...
Quarter of Paris, France shortly after the publication of Fitzgerald's The Great GatsbyThe Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
and shortly before Hemingway's The Sun Also RisesThe Sun Also RisesThe Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel written by American author Ernest Hemingway about a group of American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. An early and enduring modernist novel, it received...
is to be published. - 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...
publishes No More ParadesParade's EndParade's End is a tetralogy by Ford Madox Ford published between 1924 and 1928. It is set mainly in England and on the Western Front in World War I, where Ford served as an officer in the Welch Regiment, a life vividly depicted in the novels.In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Parade's End 57th on...
. It is the second book of a four-volume work titled Parade's EndParade's EndParade's End is a tetralogy by Ford Madox Ford published between 1924 and 1928. It is set mainly in England and on the Western Front in World War I, where Ford served as an officer in the Welch Regiment, a life vividly depicted in the novels.In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Parade's End 57th on...
published between 1924 and 1928. - The Modern LibraryModern LibraryThe Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...
is taken over by Bennett CerfBennett CerfBennett Alfred Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?.-Biography:Bennett Cerf...
and Donald Klopfer.
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,...
- Dark LaughterDark LaughterDark Laughter was Sherwood Anderson's 1925 novel which took up much the same theme as his 1923 novel Many Marriages, though he read James Joyce's Ulysses in between. The influence of Ulysses is clear in Dark Laughter. While Winesburg, Ohio is Anderson's best known work today, Dark Laughter was the... - André BillyAndré BillyAndré Billy was a French writer....
- L'Ange qui pleure - Johan BojerJohan BojerJohan Bojer was a popular Norwegian novelist and dramatist. He principally wrote about the lives of the poor farmers and fishermen, both in his native Norway and among the Norwegian immigrants in the United States.-Biography:...
- The Emigrants - James Boyd - Drums
- Louis BromfieldLouis BromfieldLouis Bromfield was an American author and conservationist who gained international recognition winning the Pulitzer Prize and pioneering innovative scientific farming concepts.-Biography:...
- Possession - Mihail Bulgakov - The White GuardThe White GuardThe White Guard is a novel by 20th century Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, famed for his critically acclaimed later work The Master and Margarita.-History:...
- 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 Secret of ChimneysThe Secret of ChimneysThe Secret of Chimneys is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in June 1925 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It introduces the characters of, among others, Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent... - Brian Oswald Donn-ByrneBrian Oswald Donn-ByrneDonn Byrne was an Irish novelist. He was born in New York City where his Irish parents were on a business trip at the time, and soon after returned with them to Ireland...
- Hangman's HouseHangman's HouseHangman's House is a 1928 romantic drama genre silent film set in Co. Wicklow, Ireland, directed by John Ford with intertitles written by Malcolm Stuart Boylan. It is based on a novel by Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne. It was adapted by Philip Klein with scenarios by Marion Orth... - 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...
- The Professor's HouseThe Professor's HouseThe Professor's House is a novel by American novelist, journalist, and teacher Willa Cather. Published in 1925, the novel was written over the course of several years. Cather first wrote the centerpiece, “Tom Outland's Story,” and only later wrote the two framing chapters “The Family” and “The... - Blaise CendrarsBlaise CendrarsFrédéric Louis Sauser , better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss novelist and poet naturalized French in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the modernist movement.-Early years:...
- Sutter's GoldSutter's GoldSutter's Gold is a 1936 fictionalized film version of the aftermath of the discovery of gold on Sutter's property, spurring the California Gold Rush of 1849. Edward Arnold plays John Sutter... - Ivy Compton-BurnettIvy Compton-BurnettDame Ivy Compton-Burnett, DBE was an English novelist, published as I. Compton-Burnett. She was awarded the 1955 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel Mother and Son.-Life:...
- Pastors and MastersPastors and MastersPastors and Masters is a short novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett published in 1925. Set in the present in an old English university town, it is about two academics with literary pretensions and the small circle of family and friends surrounding them.... - Warwick DeepingWarwick Deeping (novelist)George Warwick Deeping was a prolific English novelist and short story writer, whose most famous novel was Sorrell and Son .-Life:...
- Sorrell and SonSorrell and SonSorrell and Son is a silent film released on December 2, 1927 and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director in the 1st Academy Awards the following year... - John Dos PassosJohn Dos PassosJohn Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
- Manhattan TransferManhattan Transfer (novel)Manhattan Transfer is a novel by John Dos Passos published in 1925. It focuses on the development of urban life in New York City from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age as told through a series of overlapping individual stories.... - Theodore DreiserTheodore DreiserTheodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
- An American TragedyAn American Tragedy-Plot summary:The ambitious but immature Clyde Griffiths, raised by poor and devoutly religious parents who force him to participate in their street missionary work, is anxious to achieve better things. His troubles begin when he takes a job as a bellboy at a local hotel. The boys he meets are... - Lion FeuchtwangerLion FeuchtwangerLion Feuchtwanger was a German-Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht....
- Jud SüßJud Süß (Feuchtwanger novel)Jud Süß is a 1925 historical novel by Lion Feuchtwanger based on the life of Joseph Süß Oppenheimer.-Historical background:Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was an 18th century Court Jew in the employ of Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg in Stuttgart...
translated as PowerPower (novel)Power is a 1962 novel by Howard Fast detailing the rise of the fictional Benjamin Holt, leader of the International Miner's Union, in the 1920s and 1930s.... - Charles FingerCharles FingerCharles Joseph Finger was an American author.-Biography:He was born in Willesden, England and attended King's College London. He traveled extensively as a young man, visiting North America, South America, and Africa...
- Tales from Silver LandsTales from Silver LandsTales from Silver Lands is a book by Charles Finger that won the Newbery Medal in 1925.The book is a collection of nineteen folktales of the native populations of Central and South America, including a "just-so story" describing how rabbits and rats got their tails.... - F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
- The Great GatsbyThe Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922.... - Liam O'FlahertyLiam O'FlahertyLiam O'Flaherty was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance, born August 28, 1896, died September 7, 1984.-Biography:...
- The InformerThe Informer (novel)The Informer is a novel by Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty published in 1925. It received the 1925 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.-Plot summary:Set in 1920's Dublin in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War, the novel centers on Gypo Nolan... - 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...
- No More ParadesParade's EndParade's End is a tetralogy by Ford Madox Ford published between 1924 and 1928. It is set mainly in England and on the Western Front in World War I, where Ford served as an officer in the Welch Regiment, a life vividly depicted in the novels.In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Parade's End 57th on... - David GarnettDavid GarnettDavid Garnett was a British writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life.-Early life:...
- The Sailor's ReturnThe Sailor's Return (novel)The Sailor's Return is a 1925 British novel by David Garnett. In Victorian England, a black woman marries a sailor and faces hostility from the local community in Dorset.-Adaptation:... - André GideAndré GideAndré Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
- Les faux-monnayeursThe Counterfeiters (novel)The Counterfeiters is a 1925 novel by French author André Gide, first published in Nouvelle Revue Française... - Ellen GlasgowEllen GlasgowEllen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist who portrayed the changing world of the contemporary south.-Biography:...
- Barren Ground - 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...
- In Our TimeIn Our Time (book)In Our Time is the first collection of short stories by Ernest Hemingway published by Boni & Liveright in New York in 1925, after a smaller edition of the book, titled in our time, had been published in Paris in 1924... - 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...
- Those Barren LeavesThose Barren LeavesThose Barren Leaves is a satirical novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1925. The title is derived from the poem 'The Tables Turned' by William Wordsworth which ends with the words:... - 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 TrialThe TrialThe Trial is a novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1925. One of Kafka's best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor the reader.Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never... - Sinclair LewisSinclair LewisHarry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...
- Arrowsmith - Walter LippmannWalter LippmannWalter Lippmann was an American intellectual, writer, reporter, and political commentator famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War...
- The Phantom PublicThe Phantom PublicThe Phantom Public is a book published in 1925 by journalist Walter Lippmann, in which he expresses his lack of faith in the democratic system, arguing that the public exists merely as an illusion, myth, and inevitably a phantom... - Harry F. Liscomb - The Prince of Washington Square
- Anita LoosAnita LoosAnita Loos was an American screenwriter, playwright and author.-Early life:Born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California , where her father, R. Beers Loos, had opened a tabloid newspaper for which her mother, Minerva "Minnie" Smith did most of the work of a newspaper publisher...
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - 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:...
- The Painted VeilThe Painted Veil (novel)The Painted Veil is a 1925 novel by British author W. Somerset Maugham. The title is taken from Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet which begins "Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life".... - Eugenio MontaleEugenio MontaleEugenio Montale was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975.- Early years :...
- Ossi di seppia - Liam O'FlahertyLiam O'FlahertyLiam O'Flaherty was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance, born August 28, 1896, died September 7, 1984.-Biography:...
- The InformerThe Informer (novel)The Informer is a novel by Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty published in 1925. It received the 1925 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.-Plot summary:Set in 1920's Dublin in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War, the novel centers on Gypo Nolan... - 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...
- The Miser of Maida Vale
- A Question of Temptation
- Marcel ProustMarcel ProustValentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
- Albertine disparueAlbertine disparueAlbertine disparue is the title of the sixth volume of Marcel Proust's seven part novel, À la recherche du temps perdu. It is also known as La Fugitive and The Sweet Cheat Gone .-Publication:... - Romain RollandRomain RollandRomain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.-Biography:...
- The Game of Love and Death - Dorothy ScarboroughDorothy ScarboroughDorothy Scarborough was an American writer who wrote about Texas, folk culture, cotton farming, ghost stories and a woman's life in the Southwest.-Early life:...
- The WindThe Wind (novel)The Wind, a supernatural novel by Dorothy Scarborough depicts the loneliness of life in a small Texas town during the 1880's. It was later made into a film called The Wind starring Lilian Gish. She originally published this novel anonymously anticipating a rough reception in Texas.According to... - Gertrude SteinGertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
- The Making of Americans - James StevensJames Stevens (musician)James Stevens was an American author and composer. Born in Albia, Iowa, he lived in Idaho from a young age, and based much of his later novel Big Jim Turner on his childhood spent in Pacific Northwest logging camps...
- Paul Bunyan - Sigrid UndsetSigrid UndsetSigrid Undset was a Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.-Biography:Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark, but her family moved to Norway when she was two years old. In 1924, she converted to Catholicism and became a lay Dominican...
- The Axe - Hugo WastHugo WastGustavo Adolfo Martínez Zuviría , best known under his pseudonym Hugo Wast, was a renowned Argentine novelist and script writer....
- Stone Desert - 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...
- In the American Grain - 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...
- Carry On, JeevesCarry on, JeevesCarry on, Jeeves is a collection of ten short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 9 October 1925 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on October 7, 1927 by George H. Doran, New York... - Virginia WoolfVirginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
- Mrs DallowayMrs DallowayMrs Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in post-World War I England. It is one of Woolf's best-known novels.... - Elinor WylieElinor WylieElinor Morton Wylie was an American poet and novelist popular in the 1920s and 1930s. "She was famous during her life almost as much for her ethereal beauty and personality as for her melodious, sensuous poetry."...
- The Venetian Glass Nephew
New drama
- J. R. AckerleyJ. R. AckerleyJ. R. Ackerley was arts editor of The Listener, the weekly magazine of the BBC...
- The Prisoners of War - Arnolt BronnenArnolt BronnenArnolt Bronnen was an Austrian playwright and director.Bronnen's most famous play is the Expressionist drama Parricide ; its première production is notable, among other things, for being that from which Bronnen's friend, the young Bertolt Brecht in an early stage of his directing career, withdrew,...
- The Bird of Youth - Mikhail BulgakovMikhail BulgakovMikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
- Madame Zoyka - Noël CowardNoël CowardSir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
- Hay FeverHay FeverHay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
(first performed) and Fallen AngelsFallen Angels (play)Fallen Angels is a play by British actor and playwright Noel Coward that opened at the Globe Theatre in 1925, starring Tallulah Bankhead.Cast of the original 1927 Broadway production included:... - Federico García LorcaFederico García LorcaFederico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
- The Billy-Club Puppets - Hugo von HofmannsthalHugo von HofmannsthalHugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal ; , was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.-Early life:...
- The Tower - Zora Neale HurstonZora Neale HurstonZora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...
- Color StruckColor StruckColor Struck is a play by Zora Neale Hurston. It was originally published in 1925 in Opportunity Magazine. Color Struck won second prize in the contest for best play. Color Struck was not staged during the Harlem Renaissance.-Plot summary:... - George Kelly - Craig's WifeCraig's WifeCraig's Wife is a 1925 play written by American playwright George Kelly, uncle of actress and later Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly. It won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Harriet Craig was played by Chrystal Herne....
- John Howard LawsonJohn Howard LawsonJohn Howard Lawson was an American writer. He was head of the Hollywood division of the Communist Party USA. He was also the cell's cultural manager, and answered directly to V.J. Jerome, the Party's New York-based cultural chief...
- Processional - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - The Beelzebub Sonata
- Carl ZuckmayerCarl ZuckmayerCarl Zuckmayer was a German writer and playwright.-Biography:Born in Nackenheim in Rheinhessen, he was four years old when his family moved to Mainz. With the outbreak of World War I, he finished school with a facilitated "emergency"-Abitur and volunteered for military service...
- The Merry Vineyard
Non-fiction
- Max Aitken - Politicians and the Press
- Edwin BurttEdwin BurttEdwin Arthur Burtt was an American philosopher who wrote extensively on the philosophy of religion. His doctoral thesis published as a book under the title The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science has had a significant influence upon the history of science that is not generally...
- The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science - Adolf HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
- Mein KampfMein KampfMein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926... - J. R. R. TolkienJ. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
- The Devil's Coach HorsesThe Devil's Coach HorsesThe Devil's Coach Horses is a 1925 essay by J. R. R. Tolkien ....
Births
- January 7 - Gerald DurrellGerald DurrellGerald "Gerry" Malcolm Durrell, OBE was a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter...
, British naturalist & author (d. 1995)1995 in literatureThe year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter.... - January 8 - James Saunders, English dramatist (d. 2004)
- January 11 - William StyronWilliam StyronWilliam Clark Styron, Jr. was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.For much of his career, Styron was best known for his novels, which included...
, American writer (d. 2006) - January 14 - Yukio MishimaYukio Mishimawas the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
, Japanese author & rightist political activist (d. 1970) - January 20 - Ernesto CardenalErnesto CardenalReverend Father Ernesto Cardenal Martínez is a Nicaraguan Catholic priest and was one of the most famous liberation theologians of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, a party he has since left. From 1979 to 1987 he served as Nicaragua's first culture minister. He is also famous as a poet...
, Nicaraguan Catholic priest & poet - February 25 - Edward GoreyEdward GoreyEdward St. John Gorey was an American writer and artist noted for his macabre illustrated books.-Early life:...
, American illustrator & writer (d. 2000) - March 14 - John WainJohn WainJohn Barrington Wain was an English poet, novelist, and critic, associated with the literary group "The Movement". For most of his life, Wain worked as a freelance journalist and author, writing and reviewing for newspapers and the radio. He seems to have married in 1947, since C. S...
, English writer (d. 1994) - March 25 - Flannery O'ConnorFlannery O'ConnorMary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
, American author (d. 1964) - August 17 - John Hawkes, American novelist (d. 1998)
- August 28 - Arkady Strugatsky, Russian sci-fi writer
- September 4 - Forrest Carter, American speechwriter & author (d. 1979)
- October 3 - Gore VidalGore VidalGore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
, American writer - October 8 - Andrei SinyavskyAndrei SinyavskyAndrei Donatovich Sinyavsky was a Russian writer, dissident, political prisoner, emigrant, Professor of Sorbonne University, magazine founder and publisher...
, Russian writer & dissident (d. 1997) - October 11 - Elmore LeonardElmore LeonardElmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...
, American novelist & screenwriter - October 26 - Jan WolkersJan WolkersJan Hendrik Wolkers was a Dutch author, sculptor and painter.Wolkers is considered one of the "Great Four" writers of post-World War II Dutch literature, along with Willem Frederik Hermans, Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve...
, Dutch writer & artist (d. 2007)
Deaths
- January 31 - George Washington CableGeorge Washington CableGeorge Washington Cable was an American novelist notable for the realism of his portrayals of Creole life in his native Louisiana. His fiction has been thought to anticipate that of William Faulkner.- Biography:...
, American writer (b. 1844) - May 12 - Amy LowellAmy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.- Personal life:...
, American poet (b. 1874) - June 6 - Pierre LouÿsPierre LouÿsPierre Louÿs was a French poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who "expressed pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection."-Life:...
, French poet (b. 1870) - July 16 - Pyotr GnedichPyotr GnedichPyotr Petrovich Gnedich , known also as Gnedich-Smolensky, was a Russian writer, poet, dramatist, translator, theater entrepreneur and art history scholar.He was a grandnephew of Russian poet and translator Nikolay Gnedich...
, Russian writer (b. 1855) - July 15 – Mary CholmondeleyMary CholmondeleyMary Cholmondeley was an English novelist.The daughter of the vicar at St Luke's Church in the village of Hodnet, Market Drayton, Shropshire, England, where she was born, Cholmondeley spent much of the first thirty years of her life taking care of her sickly mother...
, English writer (b. 1859) - December 5 - Władysław Reymont, Polish author (b. 1868)
- December 27 – Sergei YeseninSergei YeseninSergei Alexandrovich Yesenin was a Russian lyrical poet. He was one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century but committed suicide at the age of 30...
, Russian poet (b. 1895)
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: Liam O'FlahertyLiam O'FlahertyLiam O'Flaherty was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance, born August 28, 1896, died September 7, 1984.-Biography:...
, The Informer - 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: Geoffrey Scott, The Portrait of Zelide - 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...
: Charles FingerCharles FingerCharles Joseph Finger was an American author.-Biography:He was born in Willesden, England and attended King's College London. He traveled extensively as a young man, visiting North America, South America, and Africa...
, Tales from Silver LandsTales from Silver LandsTales from Silver Lands is a book by Charles Finger that won the Newbery Medal in 1925.The book is a collection of nineteen folktales of the native populations of Central and South America, including a "just-so story" describing how rabbits and rats got their tails.... - Nobel Prize for Literature: 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...
- 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...
: Sidney HowardSidney HowardSidney Coe Howard was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for Gone with the Wind.-Early life:...
, They Knew What They WantedThey Knew What They Wanted (play)They Knew What They Wanted is a 1924 play written by Sidney Howard that tells the story of Tony, an aging Italian winegrower in the California Napa Valley, who proposes by letter to Amy, a San Francisco waitress who waited on him once. Fearing that she will find him too old and ugly, Tony sends her... - 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:...
: Edwin Arlington RobinsonEdwin Arlington RobinsonEdwin Arlington Robinson was an American poet who won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.- Biography :Robinson was born in Head Tide, Lincoln County, Maine, but his family moved to Gardiner, Maine, in 1870...
, The Man Who Died Twice - Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Edna FerberEdna FerberEdna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,...
, So Big