1891 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1891.

Events

*January – ''The Strand Magazine'' is first published in London. On June 25 Arthur Conan Doyle's private consulting detective Sherlock Holmes appears in it for the first time, in the story " A Scandal in Bohemia" (issue dated July).
*January 31 – Henrik Ibsen's play ''Hedda Gabler'' published in 1890 is first performed, at the Königliches Residenz-Theater in Munich, the city where it was written. The lead is played by Clara Heese (1861–1921), but Ibsen is displeased with her performance. The first British performance is on April 20 at the recently reopened Vaudeville Theatre, London, with Elizabeth Robins as Hedda and co-directing.
*March 13 – Henrik Ibsen's play ''Ghosts'' (published in 1881) achieves a single London performance, its English-language stage première (at the Royalty Theatre). To evade the Lord Chamberlain's Office's censorship, it has to be staged privately by the Independent Theatre Society, but still attracts strong criticism on moral grounds.
*April – Oscar Wilde's novel ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is first published in book format by Ward and Lock in London with the aphoristic preface originally published in the March 1 issue of ''The Fortnightly Review''.
*May – William Morris establishes the Kelmscott Press as a private press at Hammersmith (London) and produces its first book, the first edition in book format of his fantasy novel ''The Story of the Glittering Plain''.
*May 21 – Maurice Maeterlinck's play '' Intruder (L'Intruse)'' is premièred at Paul Fort's Théâtre d'Art in Paris.
*c. Late June – In a meeting of decadent poets in London, Oscar Wilde is first introduced to Lord Alfred Douglas by Lionel Johnson at Wilde's Tite Street home.
*July 1 – The International Copyright Act of 1891 comes into effect in the United States, permitting foreign authors to register their works for copyright. On July 3, the first such work, the play ''Saints and Sinners'' by English author Henry Arthur Jones, is registered.
*July 4–December 26 – Thomas Hardy's novel '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' is serialized in expurgated form in the weekly illustrated newspaper ''The Graphic'' (London); in November the first (unexpurgated) book edition is published in London.
*August 22 – Israel Zangwill's ''The Big Bow Mystery'', the first classic full-length locked room mystery, begins serialization in ''The Star'' (London).
*September 4 – Ambrose Bierce dates the preface of '' Tales of Soldiers and Civilians'' for this day, although it will not actually be issued (in San Francisco) until 1892. It includes "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", one of his best known works.
*October – Tristan Bernard has his first work published in ''La Revue Blanche'', which returns to Parisian publication this month, and adopts his pseudonym.
*October 9 – Émile Zola's stage adaptation of his novel ''Thérèse Raquin'' (first performed in 1873) achieves a single London performance, its English stage première (at the Royalty Theatre). To evade the Lord Chamberlain's Office's censorship it has to be staged privately by the Independent Theatre Society, but still attracts criticism on moral grounds.
*December – Thomas Hardy writes "The Son's Veto", which he regards as his best short story.
*December 7 – Maurice Maeterlinck's play ''The Blind (Les aveugles)'' is premièred.
*''unknown dates''
**Sophia Alice Callahan's ''Wynema, a Child of the Forest'' is published, the first work of fiction by a Native American woman in English.
**Publication of the first complete one-volume popular German translation of Shakespeare's plays
*''probable'' – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, G. K. Chesterton and fellow pupils of St Paul's School, London, compose the first pseudo-biographical comic verses which become known as clerihews.

New books

Fiction

*Grant Allen – ''The Great Taboo''
*Hall Caine – ''The Scapegoat''
*J. M. Barrie – ''The Little Minister''
*Mary Elizabeth Braddon – ''Gerard; or, The World, the Flesh and the Devil'' ("by the author of ''Lady Audley's Secret''")
* Gabriele D'Annunzio – ''Giovanni Episcopo''
*Machado de Assis – ''Quincas Borba'' (translated as ''Philosopher or Dog?'')
* Sophia Alice Callahan – '' Wynema, a Child of the Forest''
*Arthur Conan Doyle – ''The White Company''
*George du Maurier – ''Peter Ibbetson''
*Helen H. Gardener – ''Is This Your Son, My Lord?'' (in '' The Arena'')
*André Gide – ''Les Cahiers d'André Walter''
*George Gissing – ''New Grub Street''
*Thomas Hardy
**''A Group of Noble Dames'' (collected short stories)
**'' Tess of the d'Urbervilles''
*J.-K. Huysmans – '' Là-bas''
*Henry James – " The Pupil" (short story in ''Longman's Magazine'')
*Jerome K. Jerome – ''Diary of a Pilgrimage''
*Jean Lorrain – ''Sonyeuse'' (novella)
*Lucas Malet (Mary St Leger Kingsley) – ''The Wages of Sin''
*Herman Melville – ''Timoleon''
*Georges Ohnet – ''Dernier Amour''
*Daniel Owen – ''Enoc Huws''
*Howard Pyle – ''Men of Iron''
*José Rizal – '' El filibusterismo''
*Jules Verne – ''Mistress Branican''
*Joseph Jeffrey Walters – '' Guanya Pau: A Story of an African Princess''
*Oscar Wilde – ''Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories''
* Margaret L. Woods – ''Esther Vanhomrigh''
*Charlotte M. Yonge
**''Two Penniless Princesses''
**''Unknown to History''
*Émile Zola – ''L'Argent''

Children and young people

* Hedda Anderson – ''Rolfs sommarferier'' (Rolf's Summer Holiday)
*Selma Lagerlöf – ''Gösta Berlings Saga'' (The Story of Gosta Berling)
*Laura E. Richards – '' Captain January''
*Molly Elliot Seawell – ''Midshipman Paulding''
*William Gordon Stables – ''The Cruise of the Crystal Boat''

Drama

* Carlo Favetti – ' (The Fusilier and the Grenadier: A Satirical Play)
*Jacob Mikhailovich Gordin – ''Siberia''
*Maurice Maeterlinck – '' Intruder'' (first production)
*Victorien Sardou – ''Thermidor''
* Rosario de Acuña – ''El padre Juan''
*Frank Wedekind – '' Spring Awakening (Frühlings Erwachen)''
*Oscar Wilde
**'' The Duchess of Padua'' (first production)
**''Salome'' (written, in French)

Poetry

*William Morris – ''Poems by the Way''

Non-fiction

*Marie Bashkirtseff – ''Lettres''
*''Black's Law Dictionary'', 1st edition
*John Churton Collins – ''The Study of English Literature: a plea for its recognition and organization at the Universities''
* John Gibson – ''The Emancipation of Women''
*Edmond de Goncourt – ''Utamaro''
*George Holyoake – ''The Co-operative Movement of To-day''
*Frederic G. Kenyon (ed.)
**''Aristotelous Ἀθηναιων Πολιτεια: Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens''
**''Classical Texts from Papyri in the British Museum; including the newly discovered poems of Herodas, with autotype facsimiles of MSS''
*Errico Malatesta – ''Anarchy'' (''L'anarchia'')
*George W. E. Russell – ''The Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone''
*George Bernard Shaw – ''Quintessence of Ibsenism''
*Grigore Sturdza – ''Lois fondamentales de l'univers'' (Fundamental Laws of the Universe)
*A. E. Waite – ''The Occult Sciences''
*Oscar Wilde – ''Intentions''

Births

*January 7 – Zora Neale Hurston, American Harlem Renaissance novelist (died 1960)
*January 8 – (Margaret) Storm Jameson, English novelist (died 1986)
*January 9 – August Gailit, Estonian journalist and author (died 1960)
*January 15 – Osip Mandelstam, Russian poet and essayist (died 1938)
*January 22 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist writer and politician (died 1937)
*January 23 – Pavlo Tychyna, Ukrainian poet (died 1967)
*February 10 – Elliot Paul, American writer (died 1958)
*February 13 – Kate Roberts, Welsh writer (died 1985)
*March 13 – Felix Aderca, Romanian novelist, critic, poet and journalist (died 1962)
*March 27 – Lajos Zilahy, Hungarian novelist and dramatist (died 1974)
*April 29 – Bharathidasan, Tamil poet and rationalist (died 1964)
*May 15 - Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian novelist and playwright (died 1940)
*June 14 – Alexander Melentyevich Volkov, Russian novelist (died 1977 in literature, 1977)
*July 5 – Tin Ujević, Croatian poet (died 1955 in literature, 1955)
*August 1 – Edward Streeter, American humorist (died 1976 in literature, 1976)
*August 12 – C. E. M. Joad, English philosopher and broadcaster (died 1953 in literature, 1953)
*August 25 – David Shimoni, Russian-born Israeli poet and writer (died 1956 in literature, 1956)
*September 23 – Arthur Graeme West, English military writer and poet (killed in action 1917 in literature, 1917)
*October 6 – John Metcalfe (writer), John Metcalfe, English writer (died 1965 in literature, 1965)
*November 14 – Josef Magnus Wehner, German poet and playwright (died 1973 in literature, 1973)
*November 17 – Sigurd Christiansen, Norwegian novelist and dramatist (died 1947 in literature, 1947)
*November 23 – Masao Kume, Japanese playwright, novelist and haiku poet (died 1952 in literature, 1952)
*December 9 – Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet (died 1917 in literature, 1917)
*December 10 – Nelly Sachs, German-Swedish poet, dramatist and Nobel Prize winner (died 1970 in literature, 1970)
*December 17 – Hu Shih (胡適), Chinese Nobel Prize winning philosopher and language reformer (died 1962)
*December 26 – Henry Miller, American novelist (died 1980 in literature, 1980)

Deaths

*January 13 – Mary Spear Tiernan, American writer (born 1835 in literature, 1835)
*February 3 – Élie Berthet, French novelist (born 1815 in literature, 1815)
*February 7 – Marie Louise Andrews, American editor (born 1849 in literature, 1849)
*March 13 – Théodore de Banville, French writer (born 1823 in literature, 1823)
*April 24 – Rebecca Agatha Armour, Canadian novelist (born 1845 in literature, 1845)
*April 27 – Joachim Oppenheim, Czech rabbi and author (born 1832 in literature, 1832)
*July 17 – Jean Lombard, French novelist (born 1854 in literature, 1854)
*July 19 – Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, Spanish novelist (born 1833 in literature, 1833)
*August 12 – James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (born 1819 in literature, 1819)
*August 22 – Jan Neruda, Czechs, Czech writer (born 1834 in literature, 1834)
*September 15 – Ivan Goncharov, Russian writer (born 1812 in literature, 1812)
*September 28 – Herman Melville, American novelist (born 1819 in literature, 1819)
*October 15 – Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, English writer (born 1837 in literature, 1837)
*November 10 – Arthur Rimbaud, French poet (cancer, born 1854 in literature, 1854)
*''Unknown date'' – Teodor Boldur-Lățescu, Romanian journalist and publisher (born 1837 in literature, 1837)

Awards

*Newdigate Prize – Laurence Binyon

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1891 In Literature
1891 books,
Years of the 19th century in literature