1902 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1902.

Events

January 5
*The political drama Danton's Death by Georg Büchner, is first performed, at the Belle-Alliance-Theater in Berlin by the Vereins Neue Freie Volksbühne.
*George Bernard Shaw's controversial 1893 play Mrs. Warren's Profession receives its first performance at a private London club.
January 23 – The first example of a Sherlockian game – a study of inconsistencies of dates in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles by publisher Frank Sidgwick – appears in The Cambridge Review.
April – Mark Twain buys a home in Tarrytown, New York. On June 4 he receives an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Missouri.
June 16 – Bertrand Russell writes to Gottlob Frege about the mathematical problem to become known as Russell's paradox.
July 1 – The Romanian language literary review Luceafărul begins publication in Budapest.
August 6 – În sat sau la oraș, by the Romanian peasant leader Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș, is performed in his native Mușătești, in front of an audience comprising Education Minister Spiru Haret and some 2,000 villagers.
September 9 – P. G. Wodehouse leaves his job at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company in London to become a freelance writer. On September 18, his first published novel, the St. Austin's school story The Pothunters, is published in London by A & C Black, as a truncation of the version in their Public School Magazine from January to March.
Early October – Beatrix Potter's self-illustrated children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit appears in its first trade edition with Frederick Warne & Co in London. It sells 28,000 copies by the end of the year.
October 5 – Thousands attend the funeral of the French novelist Émile Zola at the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris. They include Alfred Dreyfus, given special permission by Mme Zola to attend.
November 4 – J. M. Barrie's comedy The Admirable Crichton is first performed, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, starring H. B. Irving, Henry Kemble and Irene Vanbrugh. It runs for 828 performances.
December 5 – Leo Tolstoy's drama The Power of Darkness has its Russian-language première at the Moscow Art Theatre by Konstantin Stanislavski with some success, although Stanislavski is self-critical.
December 18 – Maxim Gorky's drama The Lower Depths – Scenes from Russian Life is first performed, at the Moscow Art Theatre, as a first major success for Konstantin Stanislavski as director and star.
unknown date – The poet Ștefan Petică's cycle Fecioara în alb is published, marking a maturing of Romanian Symbolism.

New books

Births

January 1 - Muhammad Zaki Abd al-Qadir, Egyptian journalist and writer
January 5 – Stella Gibbons, English novelist
January 20 – Nazim Hikmet, Turkish lyricist and dramatist
January 30 – Nikolaus Pevsner, German-born architectural historian
February 13 – Fernando Chaves, Ecuadorian novelist, essayist, and journalist
February 16 – Ion Călugăru, Romanian novelist, short story writer and journalist
February 19 – Kay Boyle, American writer, educator and political activist
February 27 – John Steinbeck, American novelist and journalist
March 10 – Stefan Inglot, Polish historian
March 29 – Marcel Aymé, French novelist and short-story writer
April 2 – Jan Tschichold, German-born typographer
April 6 – Julien Torma, French poet and dramatist
April 9 – Lord David Cecil, English literary critic and biographer
April 23 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic novelist
June 5 – Hugo Huppert, Austrian poet, writer and translator
July 10 – Nicolás Guillén, Afro-Cuban poet
July 8 – Gwendolyn B. Bennett, African American writer and artist
August 15 – Katharine Brush, American short story writer
August 16 – Georgette Heyer, English novelist
August 19 – Ogden Nash, American poet and humorist
August 24
*Felipe Alfau, Spanish-American fiction writer, poet and translator
*Fernand Braudel, French historian
October 13 – Arna Bontemps, African American poet
October 23 – Dadie Rylands, English Shakespeare scholar
October 26 – Beryl Markham, English-born Kenyan adventurer and memoirist
October 31 – Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet
November 1 – Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian poet and author
November 2
*Hu Feng, Chinese novelist
*Gyula Illyés, Hungarian author
November 29 – Carlo Levi, Italian writer
December 20 – Jolán Földes, Hungarian novelist and playwright

Deaths

January 7 – Wilhelm Hertz, German poet and translator
April 6 – Gleb Uspensky, Russian writer
April 20 – Frank R. Stockton, American writer and humorist
April 21 – Ethna Carbery, Irish poet
May 5 – Bret Harte, American author and poet
May 6 – Emma Augusta Sharkey, American dime novelist
May 17/18 — Harriet Abbott Lincoln Coolidge, American philanthropist, author and reformer
June 10 – Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan poet
June 18 – Samuel Butler, English novelist
August 31 – Mathilde Wesendonck, German poet
September 11 – Ernst Dümmler, German historian
September 19 – Masaoka Shiki, Japanese haiku poet
September 29
*William McGonagall, Scottish doggerel poet
*Émile Zola, French novelist
October 7 – George Rawlinson, English historian
October 13 – John George Bourinot, Canadian historian
October 25 – Frank Norris, American novelist
October 31 – Cornélie Huygens, Dutch writer, social democrat and feminist
November 16 – G. A. Henty, English historical novelist
December 26 – Mary Hartwell Catherwood, American author and poet

Awards

Nobel Prize for Literature: Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen

1902 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards