1899 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1899 in literature involved some significant new books.
Events
- 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:...
begins working in his father's business. - Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria RilkeRené Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
travels to Moscow to meet Leo TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
. - Arthur MachenArthur MachenArthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...
's wife Amy dies after a long illness, an event that has a devastating effect on him. - The Irish Literary TheatreIrish Literary TheatreThe Irish Literary Theatre was a precursor to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Founded by W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Moore and Edward Martyn in 1899, this theatre presented a number of plays by the founders and other writers, including Padraic Colum....
is founded by 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...
, Augusta, Lady GregoryAugusta, Lady GregoryIsabella Augusta, Lady Gregory , born Isabella Augusta Persse, was an Irish dramatist and folklorist. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of...
, George Moore and Edward MartynEdward MartynEdward Martyn was an Irish political and cultural activist and playwright.-Early life:Martyn was the eldest son of John Martyn of Tullira and Annie Mary Josephine Smyth of Masonbrook, Loughrea, both in County Galway. He succeeded his father upon John's death in 1860...
New books
- Anna Adolph - ArqtiqArqtiqArqtiq: A Story of the Marvels at the North Pole is a feminist utopian adventure novel, published in 1899 by its author, Anna Adolph. The book was one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian fiction that marked the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.-Genre:Arqtiq participates...
- Machado de Assis - Dom CasmurroDom CasmurroDom Casmurro, written by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, was first published in Brazil in 1899. Like The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas and Quincas Borba, both by Machado de Assis, it is a masterpiece of realist literature. It is written as a fictional memoir by a distrusting, jealous husband...
- L. Frank BaumL. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
- Father Goose: His BookFather Goose: His BookFather Goose: His Book is a collection of nonsense poetry for children, written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow, and first published in 1899. Though generally neglected a century later, the book was a groundbreaking sensation in its own era; "once America's best-selling children's... - René BazinRené BazinRené François Nicolas Marie Bazin was a French novelist.Born at Angers, he studied law in Paris, and on his return to Angers became Professor of Law in the Catholic university...
- La terre qui meurt - René BoylesveRené BoylesveRené Boylesve , born René Marie Auguste Tardiveau, was a French author.-Works:* Le Médecin des Dames de Néans ,* Mademoiselle Cloque ,* La Becquée ,...
- Demoiselle Cloque - Mary Elizabeth BraddonMary Elizabeth BraddonMary Elizabeth Braddon was a British Victorian era popular novelist. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret.-Life:...
- His Darling Sin - Rhoda BroughtonRhoda BroughtonRhoda Broughton was a novelist.-Life:Rhoda Broughton was born in Denbigh in North Wales on 29 November 1840. She was the daughter of the Rev. Delves Broughton youngest son of the Rev. Sir Henry Delves-Broughton, 8th baronet. She developed a taste for literature, especially poetry, as a young girl...
- The Game and the Candle - Charles Waddell Chesnutt - The Conjure WomanThe Conjure WomanThe Conjure Woman is a 1926 race film directed, written, produced and distributed by Oscar Micheaux. The film, which stars Evelyn Preer, is based on the 1899 short story collection by the African American writer Charles W. Chesnutt....
- 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...
- Red Pottage - Kate ChopinKate ChopinKate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty , was an American author of short stories and novels. She is now considered by some to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century....
- The AwakeningThe Awakening (novel)The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899 . Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot centers around Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the... - Ralph ConnorRalph ConnorRev. Dr. Charles William Gordon, or Ralph Connor, was a Canadian novelist, using the Connor pen name while maintaining his status as a Church leader, first in the Presbyterian and later the United churches in Canada. Gordon was also at one time a master at Upper Canada College...
- The Sky Pilot - 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...
- Heart of DarknessHeart of DarknessHeart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon.The story centres on Charles... - Stephen CraneStephen CraneStephen Crane was an American novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism...
- The Monster and Other StoriesThe Monster (novella)The Monster is an 1898 novella by American author Stephen Crane . Taking place in the small, fictional town of Whilomville, New York, the novella tells the story of Henry Johnson, an African American coachman employed by the town's physician, Dr. Trescott, whose face becomes horribly disfigured... - Margaret DelandMargaret DelandMargaret Deland was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. She also wrote an autobiography in two volumes.-Life:...
- Old Chester Tales - Géza GárdonyiGéza GárdonyiGéza Gárdonyi, born Géza Ziegler was a Hungarian writer and journalist. Although he wrote a range of works, he had his greatest success as a historical novelist, particularly with Eclipse of the Crescent Moon and Slave of the Huns.-Life:Gárdonyi was born in Agárdpuszta, Austria-Hungary, the son of...
- Eclipse of the Crescent MoonEclipse of the Crescent MoonEclipse of the Crescent Moon is a historical novel by the Hungarian writer Géza Gárdonyi. It was first published in 1899 and is one of the most popular novels in Hungary.-Background:... - Maxim GorkyMaxim GorkyAlexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
- Foma Gordyeeff - G. A. HentyG. A. HentyGeorge Alfred Henty , was a prolific English novelist and a special correspondent. He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. His works include Out on the Pampas , The Young Buglers , With Clive in India and Wulf the Saxon .-Biography:G.A...
- The Golden Canon - Henry JamesHenry JamesHenry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
- The Awkward AgeThe Awkward AgeThe Awkward Age is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in Harper's Weekly in 1898-1899 and then as a book later in 1899. Originally conceived as a brief, light story about the complications created in her family's social set by a young girl coming of age, the novel expanded into a... - Octave MirbeauOctave MirbeauOctave Mirbeau was a French journalist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, novelist, and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, while still appealing to the literary and artistic avant-garde...
- The Torture GardenThe Torture Garden (novel)The Torture Garden is a novel written by the French journalist, novelist and playwright Octave Mirbeau and was first published in 1899, during the Dreyfus Affair... - Arthur MorrisonArthur MorrisonArthur George Morrison was an English author and journalist known for his realistic novels about London's East End and for his detective stories....
- To London Town - Frank NorrisFrank NorrisBenjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague , The Octopus: A Story of California , and The Pit .-Life:Frank Norris was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870...
- Blix
- McTeagueMcTeagueMcTeague is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence and finally murder as the result of jealousy and avarice...
- Leo TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
- ResurrectionResurrection (novel)Resurrection , first published in 1899, was the last novel written by Leo Tolstoy. The book is the last of his major long fiction works published in his lifetime . Tolstoy intended the novel as an exposition of injustice of man-made laws and the hypocrisy of institutionalized church... - Émile ZolaÉmile ZolaÉmile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
- Fécondité - George PastonGeorge PastonEmily Morse Symonds , known as an author by her pen name George Paston, was a British author and literary critic.-Biography and family:...
- A Writer of Books
New drama
- Anton ChekhovAnton ChekhovAnton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
- Uncle VanyaUncle VanyaUncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski.... - Leon KobrinLeon KobrinLeon Kobrin was a playwright in Yiddish theater, writer of short stories and novels, and a translator. As a playwright he is generally seen as a disciple of Jacob Gordin, but his mature work was more character-driven, more open and realistic in its presentation of human sexual desire, and less...
- Minna or, The Ruined Family from Downtown
Non-fiction
- Qasim AminQasim AminQasim Amin born on 1 December 1863 Alexandria died April 22, 1908 Cairo was an Egyptian jurist and one of the founders of the Egyptian national movement and Cairo University. Qasim Amin was considered by many as the Arab world’s “first feminist”...
- The Liberation of Women. - Edward Bernstein - Evolutionary Socialism.
- Percy DearmerPercy DearmerPercy Dearmer, was an English priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy. A lifelong socialist, he was an early advocate of the public ministry of women and concerned with social justice...
- The Parson's HandbookThe Parson's HandbookThe Parson's Handbook is a book by Percy Dearmer, first published in 1899, that was fundamental to the development of liturgy in the Church of England and throughout the Anglican Communion....
. - John DeweyJohn DeweyJohn Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
- The School and Society. - Elbert HubbardElbert HubbardElbert Green Hubbard was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Raised in Hudson, Illinois, he met early success as a traveling salesman with the Larkin soap company. Today Hubbard is mostly known as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, an...
- A Message to GarciaA Message to GarciaA Message to Garcia is a best-selling inspirational essay written in 1899 by Elbert Hubbard that has been made into two motion pictures.Felix Shay, Hubbard's personal assistant, wrote:...
.
Births
- January 17 - Nevil ShuteNevil ShuteNevil Shute Norway was a popular British-Australian novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer. He used his full name in his engineering career, and 'Nevil Shute' as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from any potential negative publicity in connection with his novels.-...
, novelist (d. 1960) - February 23 - Erich KästnerErich KästnerEmil Erich Kästner was a German author, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known for his humorous, socially astute poetry and children's literature.-Dresden 1899–1919:...
, children's author (d. 1974) - March 25 - Jacques AudibertiJacques AudibertiJacques Audiberti was a French playwright, poet and novelist and exponent of the Theatre of the Absurd.He was born in Antibes, France. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine...
(d. 1965) - April 22 - Vladimir NabokovVladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
, novelist (d. 1977) - May 8 - Friedrich HayekFriedrich HayekFriedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
, social scientist (d. 1992) - July 21
- 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...
, novelist (d. 1961) - Hart CraneHart Crane-Career:Throughout the early 1920s, small but well-respected literary magazines published some of Crane’s lyrics, gaining him, among the avant-garde, a respect that White Buildings , his first volume, ratified and strengthened...
, poet (d. 1932)
- Ernest Hemingway
- August 9 - P. L. TraversP. L. TraversPamela Lyndon Travers OBE was an Australian novelist, actress and journalist, popularly remembered for her series of children's novels about the mystical and magical nanny Mary Poppins...
, Mary Poppins author (d. 1996) - August 24 - Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
(d. 1986) - August 27 - C. S. ForesterC. S. ForesterCecil Scott "C.S." Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith , an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of naval warfare. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen...
, adventure novelist (d. 1966) - December 16 - Noel 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...
, playwright (d. 1973) - December 18 - Peter Wessel ZapffePeter Wessel ZapffePeter Wessel Zapffe was a Norwegian metaphysician, author and mountaineer. He was well known for his somewhat pessimistic view of human existence and his philosophy is widely considered to be pessimistic, much like the work of the earlier philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, by whom he was inspired...
, philosopher (d. 1990)
Deaths
- February 10 - Archibald LampmanArchibald LampmanArchibald Lampman, was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in...
, poet - March 16 - Alexander Balloch GrosartAlexander Balloch GrosartAlexander Balloch Grosart was a Scottish clergyman and literary editor. He is chiefly remembered for reprinting much rare Elizabethan literature, a work which he undertook because of his interest in Puritan theology.-Life:...
, literary editor - May 1 - Ludwig BüchnerLudwig BüchnerFriedrich Karl Christian Ludwig Büchner was a German philosopher, physiologist and physician who became one of the exponents of 19th century scientific materialism.Büchner was born at Darmstadt, Germany, on 29 March 1824...
, philosopher - May 16 - Francisque SarceyFrancisque SarceyFrancisque Sarcey was a French journalist and dramatic critic.He was born in Dourdan, Essonne. After some years as schoolmaster, a job for which his temperament was ill-fitted, he entered journalism in 1858...
, journalist and theatre critic - June 7 - Augustin DalyAugustin DalyJohn Augustin Daly was an American theatrical manager and playwright active in both the US and UK.-Biography:Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina and educated at Norfolk, Va...
, dramatist and theatre manager - June 30 - E. D. E. N. SouthworthE. D. E. N. SouthworthEmma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth was an American writer of more than 60 novels in the latter part of the 19th century. She was probably the most widely read author of that era.-Life and career:...
, novelist - July 18 - Horatio Alger, Jr.Horatio Alger, Jr.Horatio Alger, Jr. was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many formulaic juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty...
- August 29 - Catharine Parr TraillCatharine Parr TraillCatharine Parr Traill, born Strickland was an English-Canadian author who wrote about life as a settler in Canada.-Biography:...
, English-born author of "Canadiana" - October 25 - Grant AllenGrant AllenCharles Grant Blairfindie Allen was a science writer, author and novelist, and a successful upholder of the theory of evolution.-Biography:...
, author - November 13 - Arthur GiryArthur GiryJean-Marie-Joseph-Arthur Giry was a French historian, noted for his studies of France in the Middle Ages....
, historian - December 22 - Dwight L. MoodyDwight L. MoodyDwight Lyman Moody , also known as D.L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts , the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.-Early life:Dwight Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts to a large...
, preacher and publisher - date unknown
- Anna SwanwickAnna SwanwickAnna Swanwick was an English author and feminist, born in Liverpool. In Berlin she studied German, Greek, and Hebrew, and after settling in London took up mathematics also...
, feminist writer - Vendela HebbeVendela HebbeWendela Hebbe, née Åström, , Swedish journalist, publicist and author, is regarded as having been the first professional female journalist in Sweden.- Biography :...
, journalist, writer, novelist.
- Anna Swanwick