1921 in literature
| List of years in literature | 
|---|
| (table) | 
 This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1921. 
Events
- January 1 – The publishing firm Jonathan Cape is founded in Bloomsbury, London, by Herbert Jonathan Cape and Wren Howard.[1]
 - February – Margaret Caroline Anderson and Jane Heap, publishers of The Little Review, are convicted of obscenity in a New York court for publishing the "Nausicaa" episode of James Joyce's Ulysses.[2]
 - March – Jorge Luis Borges returns to his native Buenos Aires in Argentina after a period living with his family in Europe.
 - April 20 – The Hungarian Ferenc Molnár's play Liliom is first produced on Broadway in English.
 - May 9 – The première of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore) at the Teatro Valle in Rome divides the audience.
 - May – A production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre directed by Robert Atkins at The Old Vic, London, restores the unexpurgated text for the first time since Shakespeare's day.
 - June 6 – The première of Tristan Tzara's parodic The Gas Heart (Le Cœur à gaz) takes place at a Dada Salon at the Galerie Montaigne in Paris. It provokes audience derision.
 - June 10 – D. H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love is first published commercially by Martin Secker in London.
 - September 5 – The Cervantes Theatre (Buenos Aires) opens with a production of Lope de Vega's La dama boba (The Foolish Lady, 1613).[3]
 - September 26 – The Maddermarket Theatre in Norwich, England, an old chapel, is turned into an English Renaissance theatre for period drama by an amateur repertory company directed by Walter Nugent Monck.[4] It opens with As You Like It.
 - December 9 – John William Gott becomes the last person in England imprisoned for blasphemous libel.
 - December 31 – Mexican poet Manuel Maples Arce distributes the first Stridentist manifesto, Comprimido estridentista, in the broadsheet Actual No. 1 in Mexico City.
 
New books
Fiction
- Elizabeth von Arnim - Vera[5]
 - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa – "Autumn Mountain" (秋山, Akiyama)[6]
 - Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan the Terrible[7]
 - Karel Čapek – Trapné povídky (Embarrassing Stories, translated as Money and other stories)[8]
 - Mary Cholmondeley – The Romance of His Life and Other Romances[9]
 - Walter de la Mare – Memoirs of a Midget[10]
 - Ethel M. Dell - The Obstacle Race
 - Mary Frances Dowdall – Three Loving Ladies
 - Edna Ferber - The Girls
 - Fran Saleški Finžgar – Pod svobodnim soncem (Under the free sun)
 - F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Beautiful and Damned (serialized in Metropolitan Magazine (New York))
 - Mikkjel Fønhus – Troll-Elgen[11]
 - John Galsworthy – To Let (last book of The Forsyte Saga)
 - H. Rider Haggard – She and Allan
 - A. P. Herbert – The House by the River
 - Georgette Heyer – The Black Moth
 - E. M. Hull – The Shadow of the East
 - A. S. M. Hutchinson – If Winter Comes[12]
 - Aldous Huxley – Crome Yellow[13]
 - Frigyes Karinthy – Capillaria
 - Sheila Kaye-Smith – Joanna Godden
 - Gaston Leroux – The Crime of Rouletabille
 - Marie Belloc Lowndes – What Timmy Did
 - Denis Mackail – Romance to the Rescue
 - Compton Mackenzie – Rich Relatives[14]
 - René Maran – Batouala
 - L. M. Montgomery – Rilla of Ingleside
 - George Moore – Heloise and Abelard
 - Paul Morand – Tender Shoots (Tendres stocks, short stories)
 - E. Phillips Oppenheim – Jacob's Ladder
 - Baroness Orczy 
- Castles in the Air (short stories)
 - The First Sir Percy
 
 - Alejandro Pérez Lugín – Currito of the Cross (Currito de la Cruz)
 - Gene Stratton Porter – Her Father's Daughter
 - Marcel Proust 
- The Guermantes Way (Le Côté de Guermantes II, second part of vol. 3 of In Search of Lost Time)
 - Sodom and Gomorrah (Sodome et Gomorrhe I, first part of vol. 4 of In Search of Lost Time)
 
 - Sukumar Ray – HaJaBaRaLa
 - Iñigo Ed. Regalado – May Pagsinta'y Walang Puso
 - Dorothy Richardson - Deadlock
 - Berta Ruck - Sweet Stranger
 - Rafael Sabatini – Scaramouche
 - Naoya Shiga – A Dark Night's Passing (暗夜行路, An'ya Kōro; serialized 1921–37)
 - May Sinclair - Mr. Waddington of Wyck
 - Annie M. Smithson - Carmen Cavanagh
 - Booth Tarkington – Alice Adams
 - Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy – The Road to Calvary (publication begins)
 - Sigrid Undset – Husfrue (The Wife or The Mistress of Husaby, second part of Kristin Lavransdatter)
 - Edgar Wallace
 - Eugene Walter – The Byzantine Riddle and other stories
 - Arthur Weigall – Burning Sands
 - Virginia Woolf – Monday or Tuesday
 - Elinor Wylie – Nets to Catch the Wind
 - Francis Brett Young
 - Yevgeny Zamyatin – We (Мы; completed)
 
Children and young people
- Dorita Fairlie Bruce – The Senior Prefect (later entitled Dimsie Goes to School)
 - Eleanor Farjeon – Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard
 - Charles Boardman Hawes – The Great Quest
 - Hendrik Willem van Loon – The Story of Mankind (non-fiction)
 - Else Ury – Nesthäkchen Flies From the Nest[16]
 
Drama
- Hjalmar Bergman – Farmor och vår Herre (Grandmother and Our Lord, translated as Thy Rod and Thy Staff)
 - Dorothy Brandon – Araminta Arrives
 - Karel Čapek – R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (performed)
 - Karel and Josef Čapek – Pictures from the Insects' Life (Ze života hmyzu, published)
 - Clemence Dane – A Bill of Divorcement
 - Brandon Fleming – The Eleventh Commandment
 - Gerald du Maurier – Bulldog Drummond (with H.C. McNeile)
 - Susan Glaspell – Inheritors (written) and The Verge (performed)
 - Ian Hay – A Safety Match
 - A. de Herz – Mărgeluș (Tiny Bead)
 - Avery Hopwood – The Demi-Virgin
 - A. A. Milne – The Truth About Blayds
 - René Morax – Le Roi David
 - Roland Pertwee – Out to Win
 - Luigi Pirandello – Six Characters in Search of an Author
 - Sophie Treadwell - Rights
 - Tristan Tzara – The Gas Heart
 - Edgar Wallace – M'Lady
 - Raden Adipati Aria Muharam Wiranatakusumah – Lutung Kasarung
 - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz – The Water Hen (Kurka Wodna)
 
Poetry
- Robert Frost – Mountain Interval (second print)
 - Langston Hughes – "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", in The Crisis
 - Amy Lowell - Legends
 - Katherine Tynan - The Handsome Brandons
 - William Carlos Williams – Sour Grapes
 - William Butler Yeats – Michael Robartes and the Dancer
 
Non-fiction
- Adolphe Appia – L'Œuvre d'art vivant (The Living Work of Art)
 - Charles Bean (ed.) – Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, vol. 1
 - Joseph Chaikov – Skulptur (first Yiddish-language work on the subject)[17]
 - Grace King– Creole Families of New Orleans
 - Frank H. Knight – Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit
 - D. H. Lawrence 
- Sea and Sardinia
 - (as Lawrence H. Davison) – Movements in European History
 
 - North-West Frontier Province – Administration Report of the North-west Frontier Province for 1922-23
 - Edward Sapir – Language: an introduction to the study of speech
 - Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk – Further Essays on Capital and Interest
 - Ludwig Wittgenstein – Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
 - Zitkala-Sa – American Indian Stories
 
Births
- January 5 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (died 1990)
 - January 19 – Patricia Highsmith, American crime writer (died 1995)
 - January 21 – Charles Eric Maine, English science fiction writer (died 1981)
 - February 4 – Betty Friedan, American feminist author (died 2006)
 - February 5 – Marion Eames, Welsh novelist writing mainly in Welsh (died 2007)[18]
 - February 15 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and writer (died 1985)
 - March 1 – Richard Wilbur, American poet and translator (died 2017)
 - March 3 – Paul Guimard, French novelist (died 2004)
 - March 24 – Wilson Harris, Guyanese-born poet, novelist and essayist (died 2018)
 - April 21 – Angela Bianchini, Italian fiction writer and literary critic (died 2018)
 - May 20 – Wolfgang Borchert, German author and playwright (died 1947)
 - May 23 
- James Blish, American science fiction author (died 1975)
 - Ray Lawler, Australian dramatist (died 2024)
 
 - May 29 
- Mona Van Duyn, American poet (died 2004)
 - Henry Scholberg, American bibliographer (died 2012)
 
 - June 11 – Michael Meyer, English translator and biographer (died 2000)
 - June 12 – Christopher Derrick, English author, critic, and academic (died 2007)[19]
 - June 14 – John Bradburne, English poet and missionary (killed 1979)
 - August 11 – Alex Haley, American writer (died 1992)
 - August 17 – Elinor Lyon, British children's writer (died 2008)[20]
 - August 18 – Frédéric Jacques Temple, French poet and writer (died 2020)
 - August 25 – Brian Moore, Northern Irish-Canadian writer (died 1999)
 - September 12 – Stanisław Lem, Polish science fiction novelist, philosopher, satirist and physician (died 2006)
 - September 15 – Richard Gordon, English author (died 2017)
 - September 16 – Mohamed Talbi, Tunisian historian (died 2017)[21]
 - September 26 – Cyprian Ekwensi, Nigerian writer (died 2007)
 - October 2 – Edmund Crispin (Robert Bruce Montgomery), English crime writer (died 1978)[22]
 - October 9 – Tadeusz Różewicz, Polish poet, dramatist and writer (died 2014)[23]
 - October 17 – George Mackay Brown, Scottish poet (died 1996)[24]
 - November 6 – James Jones, American novelist (died 1977)
 - November 22 – Brian Cleeve, Irish author (died 2003)
 - December 20 – Israil Bercovici, Romanian dramatist and historian (died 1988)
 
Deaths
- February 6 – Abba Goold Woolson, American author and poet (born 1838)
 - February 17 – Rosetta Luce Gilchrist, American physician, author (born 1850)
 - February 24 – John Habberton, American critic (born 1842)[25]
 - March 22 – E. W. Hornung, English author (born 1866)
 - April 6 – Maximilian Berlitz, German-born American textbook writer and language school proprietor (born 1852)
 - May 5 – Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian publicist (born 1864)
 - May 12 – Emilia Pardo Bazán, Spanish novelist (born 1851)[26]
 - May 13 – Jean Aicard, French writer (born 1848)
 - June – N. D. Popescu-Popnedea, Romanian novelist, folklorist, archivist and almanac compiler (born 1843)
 - June 5 – Georges Feydeau, French playwright (born 1862)
 - June 18 – Eduardo Acevedo Díaz, Uruguayan writer (born 1851)[27]
 - June 20 – Mary Lynde Craig, American writer, teacher, attorney, activist (born 1834)
 - June 26 – Alfred Percy Sinnett, English Theosophist author (born 1840)
 - July 4 – Antoni Grabowski, Polish Esperantist (born 1857)[28]
 - July 7 – Luca Caragiale, Romanian poet, novelist and translator (pneumonia, born 1893)
 - August 1 – Helen Vickroy Austin, American journalist and horticulturist (born 1829)
 - August 7 – Alexander Blok, Russian poet (born 1880)
 - August 8 – Juhani Aho, Finnish author and journalist (born 1861)[29]
 - August 19 – Georges Darien, French anarchist writer (born 1862)
 - August 25 – Nikolay Gumilev, Russian poet (executed, born 1886)
 - September 3 - Maria I. Johnston, American author, journalist, editor and lecturer (born 1835)
 - September 22 - Ivan Vazov, Bulgarian poet, novelist and playwright (born 1850)[30]
 - September 26 – Matei Donici, Bessarabian Romanian poet and professional soldier (born 1847)
 - October 1 – Lillian Rozell Messenger, American poet (born 1843)[31]
 - October 10 – Otto von Gierke, German historian (born 1841)[32]
 - November 1 – Sarah Dyer Hobart, American author of poetry, prose, and songs (born 1845/46)[33]
 - November 8 – Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Slovak poet, dramatist and translator (born 1849)
 - November 14 – Christabel Rose Coleridge, English novelist and editor (born 1843)
 - December 28 – Hester A. Benedict, American poet (born 1838)[34]
 - date unknown 
- Emma Churchman Hewitt, American author and journalist (born 1850)
 - Della Campbell MacLeod, American author and journalist (born ca. 1884)
 
 
Awards
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Walter de la Mare, Memoirs of a Midget[10]
 - James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria[35]
 - Nobel Prize in Literature: Anatole France
 - Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Zona Gale, Miss Lulu Bett
 - Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: no award given
 - Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
 
References
- ^ The Bookseller. J. Whitaker. 1970. p. 2640.
 - ^ Ellmann, Richard (1982). James Joyce. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 502–04. ISBN 0-1950-3103-2.
 - ^ "Teatro Nacional Cervantes" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2014-01-14.
 - ^ "Norwich Players' New Theatre". The Times. No. 42836. London. 1921-09-27. p. 8.
 - ^ Römhild, Juliane (2014). Femininity and Authorship in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim: At Her Most Radiant Moment. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 116. ISBN 9781611477047. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
 - ^ Morris, Ivan (1992) [1962]. Modern Japanese Stories. Tuttle Publishing. p. 174. ISBN 0-8048-1226-8.
 - ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Books. Part 1, group 1. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1922. p. 433.
 - ^ New Makers of Modern Culture. Taylor & Francis. 2016. p. 255. ISBN 9781136768828.
 - ^ W de la L Oulton, Carolyn; Schatz, SueAnn, eds. (2016). "Introduction". Mary Cholmondeley Reconsidered. Routledge. p. 6. ISBN 9781317315827.
 - ^ a b Michael Dirda, Classics for Pleasure (New York: Harcourt, 2007), p. 144.
 - ^ Elster, Kristian (1924). Illustreret Norsk litteraturhistorie (in Norwegian). Vol. 2. Kristiania: Gyldendal. p. 808.
 - ^ Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.
 - ^ Aldous Huxley (2001). Crome Yellow. Dalkey Archive Press. ISBN 978-1-56478-304-2.
 - ^ Andro Linklater. Compton Mackenzie: A Life Hogarth Press, 1992. Page 336
 - ^ Edgar Wallace (3 March 2010). The Four Just Men. House of Stratus. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7551-2247-9.
 - ^ Rudolf Käser; Beate Schappach (31 October 2014). Krank geschrieben: Gesundheit und Krankheit im Diskursfeld von Literatur, Geschlecht und Medizin (in German). transcript Verlag. p. 147. ISBN 978-3-8394-1760-7.
 - ^ Apter-Gabriel, Ruth (1987). Tradition and revolution: the Jewish renaissance in Russian avant-garde art, 1912-1928. Israel Museum. p. 67. ISBN 9789652780713.
 - ^ J. Beverley Smith. "Eames, Marion Griffith (1921-2007), historical novelist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
 - ^ Obituary Archived 21 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine in Thomas Aquinas College Newsletter, Fall 2007.
 - ^ "Elinor Lyon: Author of 'camping and tramping' adventure tales peopled with feisty, fearless girls and boys". The Independent. 23 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
 - ^ Ataullah Siddiqui (15 April 1997). Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Twentieth Century. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-312-16510-9.
 - ^ "Montgomery, (Robert) Bruce [pseud. Edmund Crispin] (1921–1978), composer and detective novelist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31461. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
 - ^ Katarzyna Zechenter (4 May 2014). "Tadeusz Różewicz obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
 - ^ Maggie Fergusson, George Mackay Brown: The Life, John Murray, 2006, ISBN 0-7195-5659-7 p. 8
 - ^ Non Series #138- Trif and Trixy // John Habberton autograph 7 March 2012. Accessed 9 January 2012.
 - ^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James (1911). "Pardo Bazán, Emilia". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 801.
 - ^ Carlos A. Solé; Maria Isabel Abreu (1989). Latin American Writers. Scribner. p. 299. ISBN 978-0-684-18597-2.
 - ^ Julius Glück, El la klasika periodo de Esperanto (Grabowski kaj Kabe), en Muusses Esperanto Biblioteko No. 5, Purmerend, 1937. p. 6.
 - ^ "Aho, Juhani (1861–1921)". kansallisbiografia.fi. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
 - ^ Frank Northen Magill (1958). Masterplots Cyclopedia of World Authors. Salem Press. p. 1106.
 - ^ "OBITUARY. MRS. LILLIAN MESSENGER". Daily Arkansas Gazette. 7 October 1921. p. 14. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
 - ^ Otto von Gierke (2 May 2002). Community in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-521-89323-7.
 - ^ "Poetess Buried". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, WI. November 6, 1921. p. 5. Retrieved July 4, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
  - ^ "Obituary of Hester Baldwin Benedict Dickinson". Oakland Tribune. 29 December 1921. p. 10. Retrieved 24 August 2022. 
 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.  - ^ "Lytton Strachey | British biographer". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2018-01-15.