1921 in literature

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.
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.
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 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 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.
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. 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

Births

January 5 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer
January 19 – Patricia Highsmith, American crime writer
January 21 – Charles Eric Maine, English science fiction writer
February 4 – Betty Friedan, American feminist author
February 5 – Marion Eames, Welsh novelist writing mainly in Welsh
February 15 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and writer
March 1 – Richard Wilbur, American poet and translator
March 3 – Paul Guimard, French novelist
March 24 – Wilson Harris, Guyanese-born poet, novelist and essayist
April 21 – Angela Bianchini, Italian fiction writer and literary critic
May 20 – Wolfgang Borchert, German author and playwright
May 23
*James Blish, American science fiction author
*Ray Lawler, Australian dramatist
May 29
*Mona Van Duyn, American poet
*Henry Scholberg, American bibliographer
June 11 – Michael Meyer, English translator and biographer
June 12 – Christopher Derrick, English author, critic, and academic
June 14 – John Bradburne, English poet and missionary
August 11 – Alex Haley, American writer
August 17 – Elinor Lyon, British children's writer
August 18 – Frédéric Jacques Temple, French poet and writer
August 25 – Brian Moore, Northern Irish-Canadian writer
September 12 – Stanisław Lem, Polish science fiction novelist, philosopher, satirist and physician
September 15 – Richard Gordon, English author
September 16 – Mohamed Talbi, Tunisian historian
September 26 – Cyprian Ekwensi, Nigerian writer
October 2 – Edmund Crispin, English crime writer
October 9 – Tadeusz Różewicz, Polish poet, dramatist and writer
October 17 – George Mackay Brown, Scottish poet
November 6 – James Jones, American novelist
November 22 – Brian Cleeve, Irish author
December 20 – Israil Bercovici, Romanian dramatist and historian

Deaths

February 6 – Abba Goold Woolson, American author and poet
February 17 – Rosetta Luce Gilchrist, American physician, author
February 24 – John Habberton, American critic
March 22 – E. W. Hornung, English author
April 6 – Maximilian Berlitz, German-born American textbook writer and language school proprietor
May 5 – Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian publicist
May 12 – Emilia Pardo Bazán, Spanish novelist
May 13 – Jean Aicard, French writer
June – N. D. Popescu-Popnedea, Romanian novelist, folklorist, archivist and almanac compiler
June 5 – Georges Feydeau, French playwright
June 18 – Eduardo Acevedo Díaz, Uruguayan writer
June 20 – Mary Lynde Craig, American writer, teacher, attorney, activist
June 26 – Alfred Percy Sinnett, English Theosophist author
July 4 – Antoni Grabowski, Polish Esperantist
July 7 – Luca Caragiale, Romanian poet, novelist and translator
August 1 – Helen Vickroy Austin, American journalist and horticulturist
August 7 – Alexander Blok, Russian poet
August 8 – Juhani Aho, Finnish author and journalist
August 19 – Georges Darien, French anarchist writer
August 25 – Nikolay Gumilev, Russian poet
September 3 - Maria I. Johnston, American author, journalist, editor and lecturer
September 22 - Ivan Vazov, Bulgarian poet, novelist and playwright
September 26 – Matei Donici, Bessarabian Romanian poet and professional soldier
October 1 – Lillian Rozell Messenger, American poet
October 10 – Otto von Gierke, German historian
November 1 – Sarah Dyer Hobart, American author of poetry, prose, and songs
November 8 – Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Slovak poet, dramatist and translator
November 14 – Christabel Rose Coleridge, English novelist and editor
December 28 – Hester A. Benedict, American poet
date unknown
*Emma Churchman Hewitt, American author and journalist
*Della Campbell MacLeod, American author and journalist

Awards

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Walter de la Mare, Memoirs of a Midget
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria
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''

1921 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards