1898 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1898.

Events

January 13 – Émile Zola's open letter to Félix Faure, President of France, on the Dreyfus affair, J'Accuse...!, is published on the front page of the Paris daily newspaper L'Aurore. On February 23, Zola is convicted of criminal libel in connection with J'Accuse...!. Following dismissal of his appeal he flees to London to escape imprisonment. In August he begins writing his novel Fécondité in the suburbs.
February 5–June 18 – M. P. Shiel's "Yellow Peril" novel The Empress of the Earth, written around contemporary events in China, appears in the Pearson weekly Short Stories and in book form in July as The Yellow Danger; it is frequently reprinted.
February 25 – Première of Frank Wedekind's Earth Spirit, first of his Lulu plays, in Leipzig, in a production by Carl Heine, with Wedekind himself in the role of Dr. Schön.
March 25 – O. Henry is imprisoned in Ohio Penitentiary, Columbus, for embezzlement.
May 28 – Max Beerbohm succeeds George Bernard Shaw as theater critic of The Saturday Review (London); Shaw introduces him as "The Incomparable Max".
June – First appearance of E. W. Hornung's fictional gentleman thief A. J. Raffles in the story "The Ides of March" in Cassell's Magazine.
December 2 – Moscow Art Theatre's first season opens with a double bill of Emilia Matthai's Greta's Happiness and Carlo Goldoni's The Mistress of the Inn. The successful and influential Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull by Chekhov, would open on.
unknown dates
*Peadar Ua Laoghaire's story oldwikisource:Séadna begins serialisation in Ireland as the first Irish language novel.
*Gerald Duckworth establishes the publishers Gerald Duckworth and Company in London. Henry James's novella In the Cage is among their first year's output.
*English designer C. R. Ashbee begins book production at the Essex House Press.
*Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary begins publication.
*The "Generation of '98" writers and thinkers are active in Spain.
*The term "Young Poland" is coined after a manifesto by Artur Górski, published in the Kraków newspaper Życie, to signify the period of modernism in the Polish arts.

New books

Births

February 6 – Melvin B. Tolson, African-American modernist poet
February 10
*Bertolt Brecht, German playwright and poet
*Joseph Kessel, French journalist and author
February 14 – Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz, Argentine writer, journalist, essayist and poet
March 12 – Tian Han, Chinese dramatist
April 8 – Maurice Bowra, English poet and humorist
May 18 – Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel, Turkish poet, author, and playwright
May 19 – Julius Evola, Italian esotericist, journalist and philosopher
May 23 – Scott O'Dell, American children's author
June 9 – Curzio Malaparte, Italian novelist, playwright, and journalist
June 23 – Winifred Holtby, English novelist and journalist
July 8 – Alec Waugh, English novelist
July 9 – Gerard Walschap, Belgian writer
July 22
*Stephen Vincent Benét, American poet and short-story writer
*Erich Maria Remarque, German novelist
August 23 – George Papashvily, Georgian-American sculptor and author
August 28 – Malcolm Cowley, American novelist, poet, literary critic and journalist
September 13 – Arthur J. Burks, American writer
September 15 – J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and novelist
September 16 – H. A. Rey, German-born American children's writer and illustrator
October 9 – Tawfiq al-Hakim, Egyptian novelist and dramatist
October 17 – Simon Vestdijk, Dutch writer
November 14 – Benjamin Fondane, Romanian-born French poet, playwright and critic
November 25 – Debaki Bose, Indian actor, director and writer
November 29 – C. S. Lewis, English novelist and children's writer
December 27 – W. C. Sellar, English humorous writer
December 30 – Claire Huchet Bishop, Swiss children's author

Deaths

January 14 – Lewis Carroll, English scholar and children's writer
January 18 – Henry Liddell, English lexicographer of Greek
March 6 – Felice Cavallotti, Italian poet, playwright and politician
March 24 – George Thomas Stokes, Irish church historian
March 25 – James Payn, English novelist
March 31 – Eleanor Marx, English political writer and translator
May 22 – Edward Bellamy, American novelist
July 14 – Eliza Lynn Linton, English novelist and journalist
July 20 – Jean Ingelow, English poet and novelist
August 7 – Georg Ebers, German novelist and Egyptologist
August 17 – Sir William Fraser, 4th Baronet, English politician, author and book collector
September 9 – Stéphane Mallarmé, French Symbolist poet
September 20 – Theodor Fontane, German novelist and poet
September 29 – William Kingsford, English-born Canadian historian
November 29 – Ángel Ganivet, Spanish writer
December 10 – William Black, Scottish novelist

Awards

Newdigate prize – John Buchan

1898 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards