1896 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1896.

Events

February 11 – While Oscar Wilde is in prison, his play Salome is premièred in its original French by Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre company in Paris, perhaps at the Comédie-Parisienne.
March – Stephanus Jacobus du Toit's Die Koningin van Skeba, the first Afrikaans language novel, begins serialization in Ons Klyntji.
March 3 – Publication begins of the world's first magazine with an orientation to male homosexuality, Der Eigene, by Adolf Brand in Berlin.
March 7 – Gilbert & Sullivan's last operetta The Grand Duke is premièred in London at the Savoy Theatre.
July 7 – Charles Thomas Wooldridge is hanged at Reading Gaol in England for uxoricide, inspiring fellow-prisoner C.3.3. Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
October 10 – The New York Times publishes its first book review section, which evolves to become The New York Times Book Review.
October 17 – Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull is unsuccessfully premièred at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg.
November – The British magazine The Lady's Realm is first published, edited by William Henry Wilkins.
December – Frank Munsey's The Argosy publishes its first all adult fiction issue, pioneering the pulp magazine genre in the United States.
December 5 – Connemara Public Library opens in Madras.
December 10 – Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi is premièred by the Théâtre de l'Œuvre in Paris. The opening word, "Merdre!", triggers disturbances and the play is not performed again in the author's lifetime.
unknown dates
*The final volume of Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West is published.
*Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt of Queen's College, Oxford, begin excavation at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt and discover the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.
*The English twins Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson bring the treasures of the Cairo Geniza to the attention of Western scholars, notably the first Hebrew-language text of the book of Ecclesiastes known in modern times.
*The Publishers Association is established in the United Kingdom as a trade association.
*The Cheltenham typeface is designed by architect Bertram Goodhue and Ingalls Kimball, director of the Cheltenham Press in New York.

New books

Poetry

Hilaire Belloc
*The Bad Child's Book of Beasts
*Verses and Sonnets
Richard Dehmel – Weib und Welt
Paul Laurence Dunbar – Lyrics of Lowly Life, Majors and Minors and "We Wear the Mask"
A. E. Housman – A Shropshire Lad
Robert Louis Stevenson – Songs of Travel, and Other Verses
''See also 1896 in poetry''

Non-fiction

Lewis Richard Farnell – The Cults of the Greek States
Edward Ernest Green – The Coccidae of Ceylon
Theodor Herzl – Der Judenstaat
George Holyoake – The Origin and Nature of Secularism
MacGibbon and Ross - The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland
Charles Monroe Sheldon – In His Steps: 'What Would Jesus Do?'
Charles Dudley Warner – A Library of the World's Best Literature
Andrew Dickson White – ''A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom''

Births

January 7 – Arnold Ridley, English dramatist and actor
January 9 – Eleanor Graham, English children's writer and editor
January 12 – Nobuko Yoshiya, Japanese romantic novelist
January 14 – John Dos Passos, American novelist
January 21 – Guy Gilpatric, American short story writer
February 12 – Dorothy Frooks, American author and publisher
February 18 – André Breton, French Surrealist poet and author
March 1 – Moriz Seeler, German writer, poet, film producer and man of the theatre
March 10 – Nancy Cunard, English patron of the arts
March 22 – Sigge Stark, born Signe Petersén, Swedish writer
April 16 – Tristan Tzara, Romanian-French poet and essayist
April 23 – Margaret Kennedy, English novelist and playwright
May 1 – Mihai Ralea, Romanian critic and sociologist of literature
May 3 – Dodie Smith, English novelist and dramatist
May 9 – Austin Clarke, Irish poet, playwright and novelist
May 27 – Joanna Cannan, English writer of children's pony books and detective novels
June 6 – R. C. Sherriff, English dramatist
June 18 – Philip Barry, American playwright
July 4 – Mao Dun, Chinese novelist, cultural critic, and Minister of Culture
July 19 – A. J. Cronin, Scottish novelist
July 25 – Josephine Tey, Scottish crime writer
August 27 – Kenji Miyazawa, Japanese poet
August 28 – Liam O'Flaherty, Irish novelist and short-story writer
September 4 – Antonin Artaud, French theatre director
September 5 – Heimito von Doderer, Austrian author
September 22 – Uri Zvi Grinberg, Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli poet writing in Yiddish and Hebrew
September 24 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer
October 11 – Roman Jakobson, Russian linguistic theorist
October 22 – José Leitão de Barros, Portuguese playwright and film director
October 30 – Ruth Gordon, American actress and screenwriter
November 1 – Lawrence Riley, American playwright and screenwriter
November 4 – J. R. Ackerley, English literary editor
December 23 – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Italian novelist
December 27 – Carl Zuckmayer, German writer and playwright
December – Sandu Tudor, Romanian poet, journalist and theologian
unknown date – Edith Ditmas, English archivist, historian and writer

Deaths

January 6 - Thomas W. Knox, American journalist and author, journalist
January 8 – Paul Verlaine, French poet
January 17 – Lady Llanover, Welsh writer and patron of the arts
January 20 – Graciano López Jaena, Filipino journalist, writer and patriot
February 26 – Arsène Houssaye, French novelist, poet and man of letters
March 21 – Elizabeth Otis Dannelly, American poet
March 22 – Ludwig Laistner, German novelist, mythologist and literary historian
May 11 – Henry Cuyler Bunner, American novelist and poet
May 13 – Nora Perry, American poet, journalist and children's author
June 8 – Jules Simon, French philosopher
June 22 – Sir Augustus Harris, French-born English dramatist and theater manager
July 1 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American novelist
July 11 – Ernst Curtius, German historian
July 16 – Edmond de Goncourt, French critic and founder of Prix Goncourt
July 23 – Mary Dickens, English memoirist, editor and novelist
August 17 – Mary Abigail Dodge, American essayist
September 23 - Ivar Aasen, Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright, and poet
October 3 – William Morris, English poet, novelist and designer
October 8 – George du Maurier, English cartoonist and novelist
November 23 – Ichiyō Higuchi, Japanese writer
November 26
*Mathilde Blind, German-born English poet
*Coventry Patmore, English poet
December 10 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish founder of the Nobel prizes

1896 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths